A cold wind danced through the trees as the cloaked figure walked through the soggy marshlands without a sound. His sword sat motionless on his waist as his eyes remained dead ahead. His blonde hair hung down his back as if there was no wind at all. A wolf crossed the figure's path and he glanced down at it. The beast stared up at the outsider, gave a small growl and continued on its way.
The man looked down at a skeleton half buried in the marsh as he walked past it. His eyes lingered for a brief moment before they flickered back to the front. Within a few minutes he reached his destination, a large gravestone right in the centre of the marsh.
The stone was easily at least eight feet tall and several feet across in the shape of a somewhat rounded triangle. It sat on a small island across a half-submerged footbridge. The water around the island was more like slime and was a dark green colour. It gave off a rather foul odour but that didn't seem to bother the figure as he crossed the footbridge, the wooden planks not sinking at all.
The figure stood for several long moments before the gravestone, simply staring at the names carved on it. He pushed his finger against several of the names in succession, each lighting up as he did so. As the final name lit up, a black keyboard slid out of the gravestone along with several holographic screens.
His fingers flew across the keyboard at inhuman speeds as he opened up several menus and skimmed through them. His eyes lingered on one in particular, browsing through its contents quickly as though it could disappear at any moment.
As he closed the menus and the console vanished back into the gravestone, the figure turned to see three others approaching him. He glanced between them, each had the same distinctive tattoo visible on their bodies somewhere. Each of them had their weapons drawn as they carefully crossed the footbridge to the island, each step causing it to sink further into the sludge.
The figure watched as the first player, a burly man with a beard and long, grey hair stepped onto the island, his silver armour clinking as he moved. On his back sat a deadly looking claymore that shone slightly in the pale moonlight.
"You are Jirokura?" the figure asked.
"Aye. Leader of the Death Gamer guild, Devil Crows," the bigger man replied as his comrades finally joined him. The three warily watched the sapphire cloaked figure as he sized up Jirokura.
"Things will be ready within the next two months, my preparations are almost complete."
"Good, as promised you shall have all of the Death Gamer guilds at your disposal when you are ready. Only two more require convincing."
"Make sure they are all ready when I am. I will not wait." The three DGamers parted as the cloaked figure walked past them, crossing the footbridge once again without moving it. They watched as he disappeared into the marsh before one of Jirokura's comrade's spoke.
"Man… that guy must have some crazy stats to be able to do that," he said. The other two nodded in agreement.