The Awakening

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Chapter 1
Deep within the recesses of the moderator compound, I lie in wait; in wait of the moment that His tyranny will end; that freedom will be restored to the kingdoms which abound in the mortal world. Here, in the ethereal plane, we are fed the finest troll meat and sip the sweetest, most saccharine noob tears. Here, we are told that we are the chosen ones; chosen to protect the world below. Yet, I fear it is all a lie. I fear, oh how my body trembles at the thought which overwhelms my senses now; night and day, day and night. This thought; this horrendous, hazardous, thought has enveloped me whole. It is all I can do to imitate the others; to maintain the outer composure required of these higher beings- these abominations!! Oh Holy Oracle! Forgive me these thoughts. If only I had never seen what I saw on that fateful day, I could return to the Elysian bliss of ignorance.
It began as a day like any other in the compound wedged far above the highlands, masked heavily by the cloak of shadows and guarded by the undead army of Apherium. The sun, that glorious orb of illumination, never shined in this nether region, but we were told by the Ones that it was but a small price to pay for safety. I had no reason to doubt Them. There were, however, times when I yearned to be one of the people; one of the plebian masses; just another player in the game, so to speak. This had been one of those days, I cast a simple alchemy spell, the veil of darkness, so that I could move amongst the users unseen; unnoticed as the higher being that I was. My blue blood stank so heavily that even my alts were no longer safe to roam freely. So, I snuck, every stealthily, having been trained in the assassins guild before my rising to the Moderator calling, out of the compound and into the highlands.
I had, on previous ventures, made a shaky friendship with a group of vagabonds known only as The Freaks. They had been banished from the assassins guild, much like myself, and had kept my true identity a secret. However, I knew that one day, they, too, would betray me. I met them on this day, around land 43, where they were running an underground game of whack-a-troll. I was first greeted by a strange little creature who, when overly excited, would yell “feesh and cheeps, feesh and cheeps, feed me feesh and cheeps”. She was a petite young strawberry, full of vigor and life, known by her friends as Jam. Her partner in crime, Iggy, was from New Jersey, a magical island of fake tans and the dreaded Snookee the Troll. He had escaped this awful place and resided with Jam, running harmless scams on the unwitting noob.
“It’s Belle,” Jam yelled, never the most clandestine of spies.
I bade her to quiet down. Though the masses could not recognize me, Jam and Iggy claimed to have known me prior to my uprising. I remembered so little of the days before. Only my training from assassins guild stayed with me, as if it were reflexive instinct.
“Yo”, said Iggy with a nod of his head, far more interested in suckering the noobs out of their gold. He was an odd one, that Iggy, I had seen him act with extreme cruelty to the victims of his schemes, yet, to those he called friends seemed forever loyal.
I took a seat beside Jam, who had I had grown quite fond of on my adventures into the kingdoms. We spoke of trivial things. She claimed that her boss was still not properly feeding her, thought I had never met this boss she spoke of. At times, I feared that Jam had a bit of a shell shock from a previous war that I could no longer recall. We spoke as if we were old friends and when she spoke of a past that I could never, no matter how hard I tried recalling, I would just shake my head and smile. Sometimes, late at night, when I returned to the compound, I found myself saddened by this piece of life which had been torn from me when I rose to Moderator. On these nights, I would drink heavily of the noob tears to forget, once again.
I spent the next few hours chatting away and watching the schemes that Iggy was running, who had switched from whack-a-troll to castle code monte. I turned a blind eye to this obvious violation of the ToU, despite my deep desire to silence. I was, afterall, undercover. When, all of a sudden, I felt the air shift. A smell of sulfurous smoke mixed with dead skunk infiltrated my nostrils. Jam’s fangs, which she tried so desperately to hide, came out as she growled menacingly and took a step in front of me, as if to protect me. Protect Me! I laughed then to myself, but also felt honored that a plebian was willing to give her health bar to protect me. The noobs ran in fear and Iggy’s fangs came out also. He was, however, more angry that he had lost out on half a day’s hustle due to this being which was coming nearer.
He was surrounded by a heavy cloud of smoke and his face was completely hidden beneath a harlequin mask.
“DBo”, Jam whispered to me as she pushed me a step backwards.
I had had many encounters with this user from the safety of my splendorous room within the Moderator compound. He was neither troll nor noob, but a being I could not place. He was a menace; a rabble-rouser, a nuisance to the sacred forums which I had sworn to uphold. From afar, in the compound, he was easily doused with the quick swipe of my lock wand. However, here, with the general population, I was prone. I could not use my powers against him without revealing my true self.
He spoke, in a hoarse voice while breathing out smoldering ash from his mouth, “Emos, begone!”
Jam whispered in my ear, “He was once one of the assassins guild too, belle. He was once one of us.”
I summoned a staff of clarity under a heaving cloaking spell, and stared deeper, deeper into his eyes, all that could be discerned beneath the mask he wore. What I saw seemed to spark a hint of remembrance, but of what, I could not say.
“I have come for you, the one they call bellemorte,” he said. He knew my name! And that, my friends, was the beginning of the end.

Chapter 2:
Down, down, down we went into the deep unknown. Dbo led, followed by Jam, growling as menacingly as a juicy ball of strawberry possible could, then myself, and in the rear, Iggy. We were travelling in the ancient underground tunnels which had originally been burrowed by the trolls during the Great Release of Tier 4. They had, purportedly, buried themselves deep within the earth of the lowlands, refusing to ever explore the highlands. Only a few of those strange creatures remained underground. Most had eventually given up the Old Ways and had come to Forum, the last stand of The Troll. I knew, in my heart of hearts, that DBo was leading us beneath this unforgiving land. Why, I did not know. I had perused through the bazaar of forums under cloak and dagger many times in the past. It was a meeting place for all forms of life in the kingdoms. Despite the division of races in most of KaW, in forums, all roamed freely. It was, however, not some utopia of equality- fights broke out daily. I would often find Iggy there taking bets on the winners of these bouts.
I followed DBo with a curiosity piqued. I felt, yes, felt- something unknown and unforgivable in the moderator compound- that I was being led to a truth in which I so longed to find; a truth which my clouded memory would not let me see.
I had summoned orbs of illumination to light us on our way through the dirty dank tunnels. I could smell the scent of troll still lingering in the caverns. I found myself salivating a bit at their delicious odor and realized that I had skipped both breakfast and lunch. I was craving troll meat. Then, all of a sudden, out of a cubby in the darkened depths, there leapt one of the few remaining rebel trolls. I began salivating uncontrollably and before I knew what I was doing, I had my abyssal blade at his throat. Only the quick reaction of Iggy saved the ancient troll from his fate as dinner. Iggy grasped my wrist with a strength I did not know he possessed and held the blade mere millimeters from the trolls pulsating carotid artery. He whispered in my ear something; something foreign yet still so familiar.
“Hungry, so hungry”, I found myself repeating as I lay on the ground, thwarting and bucking my body trying to get free from my bondage. Iggy and DBo were holding me down with much effort, as my BFA had recently improved greatly with the purchase of an excellent ally.
I saw through glazed eyes Jam come and stand over me, arms crossed, to say, “Well, I suppose we should feed her.”
A few feet away, I could still smell the troll as he yelled, “Oh Noesssss.”
“Not you, you twit,” Jam said as she flicked a hint of fang in the troll’s direction. Jam pulled a small satchel from within a hidden fold in her little strawberry colored frock. What she fed me, I cannot say. But, I found my hunger sated as I swallowed down each bite like a ravenous beast. As my mind began to clear and my berserk seemed to have faded, I flung Iggy and DBo off of me with a little spell of repulsion I had learned somewhere; someplace from long ago.
As DBo dusted himself off, he said “We have arrived, BelleMorte.”
The troll had sustained a flesh wound and his blood was slowly trickling down his neck, so sweet. I shook off a second urge to eat the beast, grabbed my abyssal blade and banished it back into the ether of my equipment. “Arrived where?” I asked, as I re-summoned the orbs.
“What is this place?” I questioned curiously as the lights I conjured revealed a sprawling crystal city only a few hundred paces in front of me.
DBo responded, “It is the City of the Dead”.


Chapter 3
As we moved towards the opening of the cavern, I was awed by what I saw before me. A natural creation by the gods, whoever or whatever they may be, the city of the dead was a sparkling mass of precious stones and crystals and mithril protruding from the stone walls, ceiling, and ground beneath me, all glittering within their granite and marble prison. Bustling and hustling all around the city were trolls of every size and variety; noobs, marked by their gangly limbs and the hystricidae helmets they all wore, staggered mindlessly through the cobblestone streets and alleys. Kiosks were set up along the main path, selling their wares; the sounds of bartering and laughter and song all around. However, above all, was the tick-tick-tick from a giant clocktower towering far above all of the other buildings, like a sentinel watching over everything below. Tick-tick-tick, the monotonous ticking reverberated above all else, as the clock loomed over the flurry of activity on the ground.
As I stepped through the opening and into the city, I remarked, “This place seems rather alive to be called a city of the dead.”
DBo responded by pointing to the ominous clock and said, “Just wait.”
No one noticed my vagabond group as we began to make our way through the city. It was as if we didn’t exist; as if we were invisible to the citizens surrounding us. Not one person looked our way. No one even raised an eye as we pushed our way to the city centre. The troll that I had almost eaten had scurried away back into the darkness of the tunnel, which was probably for the best as his blood smelled so very sweet. I could not trust myself.
After a few minutes of walking, 6 minutes and 33 seconds precisely, marked by the ever present tick-tick-ticking of the clock, Jam stopped in her path, mouth agape, letting her fangs show with no care. She pulled upon Iggy’s tunic and pointed at a nearby kiosk. Iggy, too, looked stunned as Jam began running as fast her tiny little body would take her towards the location. Iggy followed behind, his long gait keeping up with a brisk walk. I stared at Dbo who shrugged and we both headed towards Jam and a very strange creature that she had locked in an embrace that was more like a choke hold than a hug. As Dbo and I reached the destination, I saw Iggy grinning from ear to ear as the poor creature in Jam’s grasp was choking and gagging and crying and laughing all at the same time. I was fairly certain that he was insane. He was like two people split directly in half. One side of him was truly angelic. The right of him was covered in a tunic and loose fitting pants that were stunningly white, his hair golden, his eye was the color of cerulean, and his skin was pale and perfect with a slight blush to his cheeks. He was beautiful- on the right. His left side, however, was dark and sinister. The left side of his body was ebony, marked by blood red tattoos in tribal-esque designs, he wore no shirt, showing off his sculpted muscles and black leather pants that seemed to have been sewed on they were so tight. His left eye was cat like and black with a slit of red for the pupil. The only thing that was the same on both sides of him was the expression on his face- a mixture between pure joy and panic at being choked to death.
“What is it?” I whispered to Iggy.
“That’s angel.” Iggy responded, still obviously pleased by the **** eating grin on his face.
“But, um, who is it?” I asked.
He looked at me puzzled, “Do you truly not remember, Belle?”
I sighed then. No, I did not remember. So much of my life was lost somewhere and I feared that I would never be able to retrieve it. Perhaps, I didn’t want to, but then, I had found Jam and Iggy and they were amazing and had been a part of my old life, before Moderator.
Eventually, Jam let go and the creature, Angel, whose name was positively only half accurate, went over to Iggy, gave him a friendly punch in the shoulder and the kind of hug two men can give each other when they have truly missed each other. Next, he walked up to me, still smiling with that odd dual face of ebony and ivory; light and dark.
“Belle”, he said, “I always knew you would come for me here.”
Confused, I held my hand out to give him a proper shake. I have never been one for hugs, especially for a half-angel, half-demon that I both knew and didn’t know. Instead of a shake, he punched me straight in the mouth. Stunned and tasting copper in my mouth, I summoned two recent acquisitions to my arsenal, a diamondiferous blade that had been enchanted by the dark Mage and a sickle. Before anyone could blink, I had Angel/Demon/the punk that just sucker punched me in a grip. I had moved behind him and held my blade to his throat with one hand while the sickle held his lower regions in a position that would remove him of his manhood with one swift swipe.
Angel laughed heartily and said, “I see you are still as feisty as ever you wench. Now let me go before I get angry.”
“Tell me why I should not cut you from ear to ear you plebian scum,” I gurgled out before spitting a mouthful of blood onto the ground.
“Because you are the one who banished me here Belle.”
And that is when the clock began to chime.

“Run,” DBo yelled as I lowered my blade and removed the sickle from Angel’s nether regions, “run. Now.”
Jam grabbed my arm and Angel’s hand as we began running. I did not know why, but I ran. Iggy and Dbo were ahead of us as we moved swiftly through the throng of people who still paid no mind to the fact that I had just threatened to kill Angel/Demon/Smart Arse or that we were pushing them out of the way and seemingly fleeing for our lives. We ran like the wind and when the clock had chimed eleven times, we ran into a stone wall- except it wasn’t a stone wall. I saw Dbo and Iggy plunge through and disappear completely. Jam pulled both Angel and I forward, though we were both protesting and through the magic wall as the clock was chiming twelve.
We were back in the tunnels. I turned around and saw the city before me, slightly wavy as if I were looking through a mirror in a funhouse. I watched in awe as a fog overtook the city. All of the people who had been active a moment before dropped to the ground like marionettes whose strings had been cut. The walls and ceiling and floor no longer sparkled with gemstones but grew darkened and gray. The kiosks fell like castles made of playing cards. The only thing that remained alive was the menacing clock. I could see the seconds hand still moving though I could no longer hear it’s tick-tick-tick.
“What… just… happened?” I asked, flummoxed.
Dbo responded with a shrug, “It died.”
“And…and… what would have happened if we had been in there?”
Jam looked at me with sincere sadness in her face, “We would have died, too, Belle. Those people in there- they are lost. Every day, they wake up with no memory of the day before or of anything. All they know is what you saw. They buy and sell their silly crystals and nobility and mithril, but no one ever uses them, because they die every night.”
“But- how did they get there Jam?” I asked, more confused than ever.
“Some wander in while hunting for crystals and such. Others are banished there by the Moderators and sometimes, there are rumors that the Ones have sent users there who have breached the ToU.”
“You,” I pointed to Angel/Demon/recently alive guy, “you said that I had sent you there. Why?”
Angel answered, his head bowed in shame, “You muted me Belle. I bypassed in world chat. One moment, I was drunk on mead and running around naked in world chat, the next thing I knew, I was there. And now I’m free.”
I creased my brows in bewilderment. How many users had I damned to this evil place? How long had this place been around? And most importantly, why had I never been told?
“Onwards and upwards,” DBo said, “Now is not the time to dwell, Belle. We have a long journey ahead of us and this is only the beginning.”
I nodded, banished my weapons back to the ether, and continued my trek through the underground with my friends, Jam and Iggy, the mysterious DBo, and a poor creature who I had sent to a life worse than death- a creature who forced a tear to swell in my eyes as he walked beside me and whispered into my ear, “I forgive you my friend.”

 

reserved

 

Chapter 3 added

 

Ohhh. And added an awesome picture jam drew of me in anime. There should be one of the whole cast of characters later on

 

In love with who?

 

Lol. He is merely my guide, like Virgil was to Dante.