All at once the three smashed hard against the cold hard rock floor of Bowerstone market, each coughing bits of virtual saliva from their avatars. If it had not been that they were in a game a severe concussion would have been highly likely.
"God damn it what the hell was that?!" Bryce asked pressingly while he grabbed his head, expecting a numbing pain. Felix and Milo, however, were already upon their feet and staring at the giant above them.
"W-what is this…" Milo asked with a thick scent of fear crawling about his voice, both of his friends were similarly taken aback.
The next minute was followed by what looked like tens of thousands of players appearing in the city, bunched up shoulder to shoulder from the now closed front gate to the slithery snake like winding streets extending from the market. All utterly confused and worried until they eventually looked up at the spine crawling site above them.
Once it seemed the like the square would collapse from the weight of all the combined bodies they stopped appearing, 100,000 thousand gamers standing under the colossal figure of one man. Each spreading there own concerned whispers to one and another until an ear splitting boom silenced every soul on the server.
Standing floating above the clock tower was a giant white haired Lucien, clothed in a bright red trimmed black coat stretching down to his dark boots. Boasting a height of over a hundred feet as he stretched into the sky, the lower lights of the clock tower casting ominous shadows upon the man up to his hideous face. The entirety of the skin from the left half of his face gone, replaced with an a bloody skull and a glowing red light gleaming from the eyeless socket.
The titan had a stone cold expression on his face, the shadows only adding to his threatening expression. The explosion of sound from earlier had also caused the sky to have a chilling dark red tint to it. The once kind NPC guards now bore a twisted look on their faces, sadistic smiles with red eyeballs gave off a deathly glare while there normally navy blue outfits were now the color of fresh blood. They stood at the exits around the city, closing in all the players in a half a mile radius.
All of the sudden the giant Lucien began laughing, his massive body twisting and moving as he seemed to be hearing the joke of his life. The entire crowd seemed utterly confused by this, Milo, Bryce and Felix watched with a particularly puzzled look across all three of their faces.
"Why is he laughing?!" Bryce asked worriedly as the titanic Lucien continued to enjoy himself, faint murmurs now going throughout the crowd as they tried to make sense of what was happening.
"Guys!" Felix yelled, but as soon as Bryce and Milo looked it was too late.
Without warning the once ranged hero split into a thousand shards before dissipating in the air, leaving the other two friends speechless. But before Bryce could even ask a question he to shattered like glass, leaving Milo utterly wide eyed and baffled. Around the crowd other players began to break and dissipate similarly, followed by the shocked expressions of literally thousands of their gamer friends.
"Wha-what-" Milo began before being cut off by another thunderous sound.
"SILENCE!" Lucien screamed with a sudden rage, instantly shutting all the players up for a second time. A few seconds past and the mans sadistic smile had already returned, at the same time blood began to slowly pour out of his empty eye socket.
"Welcome...to Fable Online!" he began.
"I don't like it wasting to much time so lets make this quick okay?" he said as he scanned the crowd.
"To start things off you all may have noticed that the log out button is missing in the menu…" he said, giving a slight pause as players looked at each and nodded, though still mentally shaken from the sounds prior.
"I'm sure you'll all be pleased to no that this is no glitch, indeed it is actually the prime feature of the game. You can not log out yourselves!" The man said as the smile on his face continued to grow, oblivious to the weight of the words he had just spoken.
Milo was utterly speechless, the shock and pace of recent events to much to take in.
"As many of you have unfortunately discovered if one tries to disrupt or dismantle the NerveGear to manually log themselves out the device will emit multiple microwaves from its many transmitters using the internal battery. This will fry your brain in the most horrible and painful way imaginable while simultaneously shutting down all your bodies vital functions. " he said with fiendish glee, striking silence even deeper into the hearts of all the crowd members.
He chuckled.
"Oh and did I mention you die from that?" Lucien said with a small laugh.
Milo was now on his knees, completely blown away by the tidal wave of a statement.
"Kill….us?" he softly asked to himself, barely loud enough for any to hear. Elsewhere in the crowd individual screams began to plague the atmosphere when the reality began to dawn on the players.
"Yes, yes that means all you're friends that shattered are now dead blah, blah, blah, moving on" The giant said in a mocking yet almost bored tone, suddenly giant screens began to appear in the sky.
"News stations across the globe are reporting this as we speak, already 3,245 of you have perished from the game prematurely thanks to your friends and families ignoring my warnings…..let us not increase that.." he said as the screens floated above for all the players to see, showing crying families and white sheet covered bodies being carried away on stretchers. In front of all of it news reporters and cops closed off the areas.
"...But where are my manners, as your potential executioner it's appropriate that I formally introduce myself. My name is Adrian Black, the creator of the Nerve Gear and lead developer of Fable Online!"
That was the last sentence Milo heard from the man, the sudden realization of the fate of his two friends hitting him like a freight train. He placed his hands on his head and tried to cope with the situation, how his friends families would take it, how his family would take it, his sister, his baby brother-
"Now, now don't get all pouty there is but one way to escape this game.." he said as his eyes began to glow red, causing all 100,000 other players in the square to do the same.
In the minds of every gamer appeared a vision, of a tall black structure in the sea, looking like a bunch of random sharpened rocks jutting out from the ocean. Adrian then began to narrate the scene as players watched.
"This is the tattered spire, the single object that will decide the fate of the lives of every player of Fable Online" he said as the spire began to rise in height rapidly.
"For the only way for you heroes to escape is to stop its construction before it reaches its completion by my hand in exactly 847 days time" as he spoke the tower reached its pinnacle, followed by it suddenly bursting into a massive fiery light that was shown engulfing the entirety of virtual Albion.
"Too specific? Well deal with it that's my favorite number!" he exclaimed loudly as everyone's vision was brought back to Bowerstone, laughing manically while his voice seemed to consume the city.
Without warning he was suddenly engulfed in a massive red pillar of light, shining down like a laser beam onto the clock tower below. Completely disintegrating the structure in seconds and replacing it with a blue light that began to emanate from the ground.
"This is a Cullis gate, one of only 11 in this world, they will allow you to teleport to and from the ones you have discovered across the world. Though that is not the main purpose, their real design is to be the speed bumps on your journey to kill me" Adrian said with a seemingly proud smile on his face, he then continued.
"To gain access to the spire, you will all have to successfully locate and activate the 10 other Cullis Gates around the world, defeating the 10 gods of the world that guard it in the process. While doing this four heroes will be formed among you, and not any of this Melee, Ranged and Magic non-sense either. No they will be the heroes of Strength, Will and Skill, and shall appear in that order. The fourth and final hero will appear at the end after all ten are activated, he will be the master of all three of the disciples and herald the final battle."
"Once this is all accomplished this first gate will transform into a main Cullis Gate which will allow transportation to the Spire and subsequently the final boss…..…ME!" he said with a roaring laughter, striking fear so deep into the hearts of the gamers that even the lifeless and emotionless bits of data called "NPCs" seemed to reflect it.
"Sounds too easy?" he asked with a sarcastic smile, happily continuing after a short pause.
"Well don't worry there is an extra catch for all you hardcore gamers you know I love dearly. If you die in this game, that is to say your health points reaching zero. Then the transmitters inside the Nervegear will emit the same brain frying microwave that your friends receive and hehe yes you guessed it, you die." he said with joy, though adding in the last two words with a demonic change in voice. Sounding similar to Jack of Blades in Fable: The Lost Chapters.
"Well this concludes the tutorial for Fable Online, may you strive to be the greatest hero of them all! Oh and one more thing…" Black said as his Lucien figure drifted higher into the air, becoming less visible the second.
"Think of it as a parting gift for participating in my game…" he said as his voice trailed off into nothingness, faint laughter following it as it eventually dissipated completely.
A red light then engulfed the entirety of the square, seemingly emanating from the players themselves it shown brighter then all the game rendered stars combined. When it dissipated after a few seconds the visual shock was felt by all, once handsome and gracious looking heroes quickly turned into much less impressive and sometimes repulsive real face of the average gamer.
The ratio of male and female shifted dramatically once this happened, with what first seemed like 50/50 for the genders quickly changed to a scary 80% males. This in turn caused many players to freak out on top of what they had already been revealed to them. Those who didn't panic and run wildly in the streets collapsed onto the grown in a broken mental state while others shouted curses and words of profanity as they seemed to lose all sanity. Milo in particular lay on the ground with virtual tears streaming down from his eyes onto the ground in small droplets.
Yet as if nothing was happening the NPC's of the town returned to normal, the guards and shop keepers remaining as friendly as ever as shocked players literally began to lose their minds in front of them. The sky to, had changed back to normal with a plethora of stars once again gracing across the sky while bright and cheerfully lit lights filled the streets. In the center of all this was the new Cullis gate that sat endlessly pulsing blue light where the clock tower once was, cracks formed in the stone around it.
The neighborhood was in shock.
On a quaint street corner multiple flashing ambulances were parked, yellow tape was placed around the entirety of the scene. Outside this over a hundred people stood in their pajamas, watching horrified as two stretchers emerged from the house with body bags on top of them.
Suddenly a deranged woman burst from the crowd, ducking under the tape while running screaming at one of the bodies. Tears flowed in large amounts out of her eyes while her face seemed mentally broken. Her screams were inaudible as she dashed towards the body bag, police officers had to step in and hold her back while she clawed at the ground under her.
Inside the home was a similar grim atmosphere, the door of Milo's room lay shattered on his bedroom floor. Inside two paramedics stood over the remaining boys body, the bulky helmet wrapped around its head showing a small green light every few seconds to show he is still connected. The distraught father sat on Milo's bed with his hands around his head, small tear drops dropping into the carpet as he silently wept. Peter was almost too disoriented to notice one of the paramedics approaching the Nervegear wire plugged into the wall.
"W-what are you doing he'll die!" he asked urgently as he prepared to tackle the man, how ever he was stopped by the other paramedic who then spoke up.
"Black has guaranteed us a five hour grace period to transport the patients to professional medical care, do not worry this has already been proven to be a reliable across the world." the man said while looking the father sternly in the eyes.
Like a puppet getting its strings cut Peter fell back to his seat on the bed, watching from sobbing eyes as the two men loaded his fifteen year old son onto the stretcher and carried him out of the room. As they passed through the remains of the door a small girl stood in the hallway, her long brown hair decorated in pigtails as she stood wide eyed with a teddy bear to her side.
"Daddy?" she called out as the men dressed in white and red walked passed her with her older brother lying unconsciousness.
Peter did not even respond, not able to bear to look into his own daughters eyes after the recent events. Mentally torn about causing the death of two children. Outside the room the faint sounds of a baby crying could be heard, while Denise paced frantically in the kitchen as she watched her son being hauled away into the ambulance. Her face already dried from all the crying, now just a husk of black circles sagging under her eyes. Everything seemed to be broken for them, their lifestyle under siege.
For that day was the darkest, and one of the last, in the once happy families history.
Milo awoke in the same spot he had ran off to after the announcement, sitting back against the stone wall under the market bridge. He held his hands around his legs in a fetal position while keeping his head down. Outside the sky had begun to brighten slightly, signifying a coming twilight. He did not wonder why he had disappeared for a few hours, likely because he already new he would have to be transported to a hospital and it made him think of his life at home…
He swallowed a lump in his throat, banishing the thought into the deepest recesses of his mind as he closed his eyes and began to whimper like a lost orphaned puppy.
No friends.
No family.
No guild mates.
No home.
Milo was utterly alone in the world, even the smallest bits of contacts he managed to keep in the world severed for what looked like ever. For even if he were die at that very moment, not a single soul in Albion would know or care. He was a ghost, nothing more then a small ant getting swept up in the tornado of a world much larger then he could ever hope to challenge.
"No." The boy thought, the rage growing inside him exponentially.
Something opened up inside him, a new door. Suddenly he felt a immense rage pile up inside his mind, he then immediately released his body from the fetal position and stood up.
"He killed Felix."
"He killed Bryce."
"He tore my life apart."
Milo was now walking up the stone stairs and onto the market bridge, gritting his teeth harshly while his long brown hair covered his eyes in pitch black shadow. He kept his gaze trained ahead as he marched coldly across the stone expanse. Beside him were numerous players in all sorts of broken mental states, some even bordering insanity as they clutched there faces and hid their bodies in corners as if to make it all go away.
Soon he reached the gate, completely ignoring the friendly guard who tried to give him tips as he braved the open path. As he walked his hands slowly began to light up in a blue light, simultaneously he began to grunt angrily.
"Adrian Black…" he began as he ventured far off from the city, a hundred in front of him a devilish looking wolf began to run his way.
"I…" he said while still walking with his hands alight, the wolf closing in rapidly.
"Will…." Milo continued, the wolf now just feet from his body. Leaping at the boy with a strong murderous intent.
"KILL YOU!" he yelled as he used his blue lit right hand to grab at the creatures throat, slamming it to the rocky path with an immense amount of force. As he did this a blue pillar erupted around him, sending out a small shockwave as the beast disintegrated into a thousand shards.
Cold and unwavering Milo continued on the path, ahead of him the sun had just peaked over the horizon. This removed the shadow blocking the top half of his face, revealing gritty yet determined eyes. Above this was his health bar with a six letter word riding on top of it, the name of a newly born hero.
"Apollo."