Changati looked around with the rest of his remaining guild behind him. "OK, so we've got only a few hours to go to see what nobody else has seen before. Then it all goes away, but before we take one more step, I want to say something." He turned around to face his friends, his elven ears twitched a little, "You guys are the best, I couldn't have asked for a better guild, or better friends. When this shuts down, I hope you'll at least 'try' to stay in touch. Maybe we can come together again in another world, in some other game." He put a finger to his eye and wiped away a tear that wasn't there.
Then he spun on his heel under their nodding heads and their own simulated emotions, "Now, let's go! The Farwalkers have a few more steps to go together before the end!"
They drew their weapons and raised them up, "Chase the horizon!" They shouted their guild's battle cry, and followed after him as Changati ran. Open woods became plains, plains became desert, they fought through monsters and snatched up rare minerals, treasures, plants, and more. For hours they ran until they saw the timer appear and began to tick down to the final minute.
Changati stopped short in that last minute and turned to the team behind him. They'd just finished off a dragon by ripping off its wings and then its head, when he got their attention. "Time is running out…" He said softly, and his hand shot out in front of him to where they stood.
One by one their hands came out to cover his. The clock ticked down, one minute became thirty seconds, thirty seconds became fifteen. "I don't want this to end…" Changati whispered.
"Me neither." They answered together.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
The timer was gone.
"What the…?" Changati looked around. The scenery was changing, vanishing, then gone. His eyes widened as he looked at his friends. "Wait… why are my eyes widening? The game couldn't do this."
Mendoki ran her hands tentatively through her green hair. "I can… feel them. I can feel the strands of hair like they were my own. What's going on here?! Is this an update?!" She exclaimed in surprise, and then her smile began to grow.
"I get it!" She jumped up and down for joy and began clapping her hands.
Mina touched her ample breasts, "Don't even say 'this is an update' Mendoki, because 'these' definitely feel real, and you know how the law is about that kind of thing. None of the pervy stuff goes."
Raolius folded his arms in front of him, "No, those are yours, someone 'else' needs to touch them to make sure." He winked a red eye at her and she glared daggers back at him before folding her own arms the same way, between her breasts and himself.
"Don't even think about it, Mendoki is the only one for me and that's that. She can touch them all she likes." Mina said and stuck her nose up into the air.
"Alright, alright, that's enough out of you two pervs." Changati said, and turned his attention to Mendoki. "Now, what is it?"
"It's not an update, it's a sequel!" Mendoki squealed with excitement. "They probably migrated the servers out of Japan to somewhere else, somewhere where all the pervy stuff is allowed! There were rumors about this kind of thing all over ReadIit. Maybe they're in Britain, or Russia, or who knows… or cares, where! The point is that they were probably working on this forever and the shutdown let them just upload a whole new world along with the settings changes!"
"Wait, I need to test something…" Mina said and went over to Raolius, and kicked him in the balls.
He went down to his knees clutching at his crotch. "Oh… that hurt… that hurt…" He groaned audibly, then his eyes widened and he touched the horns growing out of his head. "Wait… that hurt?"
"OK, looks like this is a true full dive experience then." Changati remarked dryly. "Watch the balls and watch your ass, we don't know just how realistic this gets. They probably don't allow lethal pain but…" he shrugged, "You know how foreign countries can get. Come on Farwalkers, we've got a whole 'new' world to see and who knows how long to do it!"
"Chase the horizon!" They shouted… except for Raolius… who groaned it uncomfortably as he got back to his feet.
Thrilled by the new game version, they took off running. The grass crunched underfoot, the flowers had real fragrance, the wind on their faces struck with unparalleled realism. "It's, unbelievable! Like a dream coume true!" Changati shouted as they ate up ground in the woods they found themselves in. The trees, everything, struck the whole team as impossibly real even for the latest VR simulations. When they emerged from the woods and crested a hill, they saw it. Changati in fact, saw it first. His eyes went wider than they ever had and he pointed out ahead of them. "Look at that! A city! And… what detail!"
Even from their distant hill, they could hear the sounds of bustling, and the smells that an old city might have, wafted on the wind to where they stood. Their noses wrinkled a bit. "I shouldn't have chosen a wood elf. Looks like they really enhanced the sense of smell to match my character race." Changati shuddered. "Still, it looks impressive and realistic."
"Sure, but we're far away, lots of things look great from far away, but when you get up close?" Raolius shrugged. "Well you know, like most people, turns out to be worthless."
"Aren't we Mr. Positive?" Mina shifted out of her elven shape and into that of her dopple character just to stare at him with the blank face. She put her hands on her hips and scolded him, "We've got a whole new game to play here, a whole new experience and they even imported sensory data…"
"The pain in my balls confirms that for sure." Raolius interjected sarcastically.
"Oh that was hours ago." Mina said with a teasing voice, "Don't live in the past, and you had it coming, pervert. My point is that you should be more positive, this may be the greatest update and smoothest port in gaming history, and all you can be is negative."
Raolius rolled his eyes, "Alright that's fair, that's fair. But still, I'm just saying we shouldn't get our hopes up until we've seen the rendering up close. I mean putting all this together in secret, they had to have cut some corners somewhere."
"Well just keep your hopes up for now." Mendoki replied and took the next step forward down the hill, "let's take our time and head into the city, I wonder how good the AI is on the new NPCs. I mean these renderings are great, but you can't judge a game by looks alone."
And so down the hill they went, and the city became clearer. The stone walls were large, nearly thirty feet in height, smoke risingose from within from dozens of places, long dirt roads curved away from the entrance. People rode on horses, large wolves, rode in small carriages or carts, and many simply walked. The races seemed to be almost entirely elves and olive skinned humans, though a handful of orcs and goblins seemed to go to and fro. "Well, I don't see any dopples, so…" Mina muttered, and shifted to her favorite shape, a large breasted elven woman.
They drew closer, and one by one, they slowed and stopped. Changati was the first to give voice to their slowing steps and rising anxiety. "Something is wrong, something is very, very wrong."
They grouped together and stared from one to the other as they tried to work out what felt so wrong. Raolius held a deep frown on his face and scratched his head. Mina folded her left arm over her right and half hugged herself, staring at the ground as she struggled to grasp what felt wrong. Mendoki's already pale skin became more so and the fine hairs on her skin stood on end.
Changati reached out and touched her arm. "Your hairs are standing on end… and so are mine." He whispered, and then stared past his friends and up to the wall where figures walked back and forth or stood looking out watchfully below.
Changati kept his voice low and gruff, a hoarse whisper that he leaned into his friends to convey. "Where are the NPCs? There are no tags… no way they'd be missing those. Players, maybe not? But… but not NPCs. And no way those are players up there just standing on watch for hours on end for no reason. And why would they bother to program the hairs on our avatars to stand on end when we're anxious? Not a chance, no way!"
"I'm going to log out! I've got to check ReadIt and see what the buzz is on all this!" Raolius said with a sudden sense of panic that made, to his horror, his heart pound in his chest. They stared, waiting, hoping for him to vanish, watching, praying to anything or nothing for him to vanish as he logged out.
Nothing happened. He reached for the helmet, he reached out to call for the admin screen, he whispered 'logout' and 'emergency logout' or 'gm call' 'administrator' 'help' 'support' 'help and support'. Phrase after phrase was met with nothing.
"Hey… I can't access my character information…" Mina said with horror, "If I concentrate, I can kind of see it, I know how much magic and all that I've got but… nothing comes up like it did before." She began to rub her left arm stiffly with rising anxiety.
"I'll teleport back to the guildbase, maybe we have to logout from there." Mendoki said with hopeful optimism, their eyes shot to her and waited for her to vanish, but she didn't.
"Why am I still here?!" She cast her eyes past her friends to look at the many passersby only fifty feet away, and asked it with such urgency that she could barely contain her volume.
"Because… this isn't our world. This isn't a game… this is real." Changati replied, and looked at the world around him, for a moment he wore a face of terror, horror, with mouth gaping and sweat dripping down his face.
Then, his mouth began to close as the understanding sank in, and the raw fear slowly transformed into happiness. He looked at his companions, their expressions remained unchanged from the anxiety and fear that had been his a moment ago.
"Don't you understand… my level one hundred Farwalkers? This… whole new world… it's real." He said with special force on the last word, and one by one, his reminder of what they were, hit home, and their faces began to change to match his own.
xxxxxxx
When the Acolytes of Tomorrow laid Lumase on the dial in the fetal position, they didn't have to wait long, the sun moved over the dial, and the flesh touched by the shadow burned away, along with the bone beneath. As if the shadow itself had substance, the ash moved with it, until it had come full circle with the passing of the day. Though court went on for Malthus, his heart wasn't in it.
All he could do was watch the body burn away, he remained there until it was gone, and nothing was left of the life before but a small pile of ashes. The Acolytes of tomorrow were clad in robes of pure white, they were loose and flowing, but the aged men and women were well accustomed to moving in the garments of their office, and so walked without stumbling or tripping.
Save for the women, they had long beards that reached from chin to waist, and which were neatly tied into a small tight knot at the base from which hung small golden sun shaped jewelry. The six of them surrounded the ashes, and gathered the ashes together into a small clay chalice. Then one drew from his robe, a small corked clay bottle. He popped the cork and poured dark red wine into the chalice containing the ashes of the last prophet.
With a cracked and broken voice marred by age, the eldest among them spoke up. "Power from the past becomes power for the present, as those who came before, spoke through him, let him also speak through us." He then took the chalice, and drank deeply from it, before passing it to the next acolyte.
One by one, they passed the chalice, until it returned empty to his waiting hands.
"How long?" Malthus asked from his place on the throne. His fingers clenched the armrest of the seat of power, and without even meaning to do so, he leaned forward as if to hear the answer a moment earlier.
"Sire, we sleep tonight, and by morning, one of us will know who he has chosen." The eldest of the acolytes replied, and Malthus gave a reluctant nod in answer.
"Good, to be without divine eyes is a bad thing for a king. Last time we lacked it, well, look what happened with the Newcomers." Malthus said and gave a shudder that was shared by others in the great hall. "The tragedy of those days… we cannot survive them again. Who knows how much land we will lose next time?"
It was a solemnifying question, and cast a pall over the hall. "For now, go, meditate, rest, and tomorrow present the next Lumase at my side. I'm going out." Malthus said wearily and stood slowly from his throne.
He took up his sword and put it at his side. It was the finest thing he owned, save for the simple golden circlet on his brow, his clothing was rough spun cloth without refinement, except for a thin layer of fox furs sewn into it on the inside for comfort against his skin. The brown cloth was wrinkled but clean, and painted on the center in red was the red bear paw of the Ongeku people. He didn't have to say anything to his guards, two fell in at his right and left hands as they exited the large hall of simple stone and wood.
They exited the hall after a few minutes of walking and emerged into the evening sun, the capital was still very much alive. People in clothing like his own, with simple colors of browns, greens, blacks, and reds. Many were even more simple, wearing just plain furs that had been cut and sewn simply into basic functional clothing. The streets were slabs of flat stones left over from the mining operations, and the wives of the city had just ventured out of their homes to undertake the task of cleaning their city.
Malthus looked on them with pride, men moved aside to let the wives work, the younger wives following the lead of the elder ones, a heavily drunken man casually cast off the core of an apple… and was quickly surrounded by several men who upbraided him harshly, getting into his face and jabbing fingers into his chest. Sheepishly, the drunk picked it up and set it in a nearby barrel.
The rhythm of life kept the capital cleaner than most cities, though the stink of cooking and industry, not to mention both human and animal waste, couldn't be entirely eliminated. Not far away from where he they walked, he heard the 'clang' 'clang' 'clang' of blacksmith hammers beating metal into shape for weapons or tools of farming or other labor. The acrid smell of leather tanning wasn't far away, but most of all it was the singing that he listened for, and the dancing that he looked for.
He wasn't long in finding either. In the great circle near the center of the city, in the shadow of his hall, a large public fountain provided water for the people, and and at various intervals there were troupes of performers. These were different.
Dark elves, wood elves, and humans in outlandish clothing, sang and danced to the sound of stomping booted feet and heavy clapping hands. Women twirled like the wind holding great sheer multicolored raiments aloft, and the smell of beer was quick to hit his nose.
Malthus stood back behind a particularly enthusiastic troupe. Four human men plucked with incredible speed on long stringed instruments with a hole in the center, while one pounded a set of traveling drums with equal speed, and in front of them all a lithe dark elf woman swirled and leaped like a deer fleeing hunters from place to place. She lept so high it was as if she wished to touch the sky, and though her skin was tan, the flush to her face gave a glow like a rose, and a smile spread out showed him that she was doing what she loved.
All he did for a while, was simply watch while his guards stood back. Yet they could feel the tension in his body. The way he stood, feet apart, squared as if to make a public address. His hand around the hilt of his sword as if to draw it. The way his head remained still, fixed forward, as if daring something to emerge to challenge him.
"Sire…? Pardon me sire, it's not my place but… you don't have to feel like you did anything wrong." Pinar said softly.
Malthus looked over his left shoulder to where his guard, Pinar, stood. "Hmmm? What was that?"
"Sire," He repeated, "You didn't do anything wrong. Lumase was very old. His time had come. That is all."
Malthus nodded, "No, I know, that isn't what bothers me. I just feel everything about to change. Lumase's final prophecy. Prophecy is lethal, you know that. It takes the lives of those who use it, and inflicts horrible pain on them every time it's done. The agony they experience is said to be like setting the brain on fire. Yet we can't do without it anyway. And this time, it killed Lumase, the more significant or dangerous the prophecy, the more painful it is to bear it. Lumase's death tells me that we face an even greater danger than we could possibly realize."
"My Lord," Pinar said with a shaken heart, "You've never led us wrong before, whatever it is that's coming, you'll see us through it. Lumase knew that much, and so do we."
Malthus gave a quiet nod and watched the vigorous performance. "I'll do my best, but Rashlit's words did not comfort me. No, not even a little. The Newcomers are more dangerous than my grandfather or father ever dreamed. But here…" He tilted his chin up, gesturing toward the enthusiastic crowd that was enjoying the performance, "I have so much to protect. Will I be enough, even with aid from unknown saviors? Or will I need the nations to come together to drive the Newcomers away from our shores? And even if we can, what stops them from coming back?"
His guard went very quiet. "Right, I don't know either, but I'd better work something out soon."