《Chaotic|Nonsense》
Chapter 1: It has to start somewhere.
BOOM!
With a great explosive force, the ceiling and walls of nearly the entire castle collapsed, which only revealed further to the inhabitants that weren''t particularly flattened the sheer madness going on outside. Water elementals crawling out of the well at a rate the capitol guards could barely hold back. Giant mechanical thingswith bodies and legs like spiders and covered in gears that emitted steam crawling around wrecking the roads herded by a man piloting the largest one. An immensely strong warrior that found the store of cannonballs. He Tossed them in the air before swinging his club into them, propelling the cannonballs at random guards or passerby, as though it were some kind of game to him.
In all of this utter madness, who could blame the royal guards for not paying enough attention to notice the relatively innocuous sight of a griffon ridden by two men, one of them locking a chain around his waist the other was holding. Of course it didn''t help that one of the castle guards revealed himself a traitor, casting some spell or throwing some item creating a cloud of smoke, obscuring everything. Only those paying enough attention from outside the smoke would notice the chained man, swinging into the smoke empty handed, and leaving with none other than the princess of the Taren Empire!
Wait, I should probably start from the beginning, shouldn''t I? Alright, let me start over.
In the year 30xx, a few months after the beginning colonisation of Jupiter, a new game came out that caught the eye of many people. It was a game the Dev''s and Creator, who all remained anonymous for reasons the world would find out soon enough, seemed to pour their absolute heart, soul, and mind into. It was free to play, completely and utterly, no ads, no subscription, nothing, just a small button on the login screen for anonymous donations. Now this game was special due to the amazing fact that it had more detail put into it than many of the pay to play games out there. Character customization was massive, including creation, and getting into the game world, it felt more like a world simulator that the government would run on hyper-advanced alien supercomputers than a game even. It was overwhelming for many players. Even the controls were completely customizable, some chose to play and control like an fps, some a traditional mmo, some a Lane Based Brawler, some dove right into vr, and all forms inbetween. There were even streams of people who played it with ancient hardware, using only three buttons, or one man even used a dance pad. One thing was clear, the only restrictions were the ones the players hadn''t figured out how to break.
But after a few weeks of the game being out, the developer announced that current server was just a test server, and that everybody would have to move their characters to the actual server in an event happening in three weeks for characters of all stages. It was an event where the world was ending, and the players all had to make it to portals in the towns before their characters were destroyed. Everyone agreed it was a fun event, and an interesting way to move things onto the actual proper server, as well as do a wipe of the characters of players that dropped the game behind the scenes.
And here is where it started getting odd, when the players went to interact with the npc''s, they acted very, unsettlingly, real. The Devs had explained that the real game was intended to be a roleplaying game to the utmost extent, with ai to match, so it would explain why the adventurer''s guild lady was so confused when the players started talking about DPS( Damage Per Second), Aggro (A Shorthand for the likelihood of an enemy attacking you), and CC (Crowd Control) right in front of her after recieving a request.Stolen story; please report.
But still, eventually people started to roleplay more, even if only so the NPC''s would stop asking them about dps and such. Most people also agreed that due to just how real they were, it would be in bad taste to be mean to them. Most people, not all of them. Eventually throughout the game''s first few official weeks, 6 players came together, and they hit it off. Why wouldn''t they, they had a surprising amount in common, all single, all guys, all average working people, and the game was practically their lives. They joked about how it was kind of sad, then laughed at themselves while slaying trolls effortlessly, then elementals, then dragons, then opening planar rifts. All throughout laughing, joking, celebrating a birthday, and discovering everything about the game like overeager 4 year olds. They even got a special pm from the devs, congratulating them on being the first people to create a private plane. Not the flying kind of plane.
And eventually, they hit a ceiling. Not an immovable one, but progress in abusing and learning more about the system would move much slower, so, they got more involved in events, and found one thing. They were kind of same-y. After doing enough of them, they sensed a pattern, either ''Bad Guy X is causing problem Y so stop him'' sometimes adding ''So find Item C and use it in some way on something'', or ''We have had a Drought/Flood/Problem Q so please do task Z or Collect Resource U''. All oddly realistic stuff at times too.
So, they decided to found a solution. When I say found, I don''t mean find, I mean Found. They founded the Group ''Chaotic|Nonsense'' and from there, they decided that they wouldBecome the interesting events. And so they caused havoc periodically, creating unstable mana vortexes on this farm here, slapping awake an ancient dragon and running towards the nearest city there. Either way, chaos, panic, some NPC death, and interesting stuff. It was odd how the NPC''s never respawned. They also followed the same Injury Rules as the players, broken bones, ones that were missing a leg remained missing that leg, they seemed to follow the rest of the players rules as well. They also seemed quite, emotional. The normal Adventurer''s guild lady was replaced for a few weeks after one of Chaotic|Nonsense''s ''events''. Apparently she was caring for her little sister after her leg was broken. Sure enough after some investigation by stealthy players that heard this, there she was, soup in hand by her sister''s bedside, an expression of pure worry on her face. It was eerie, to say the least, howreal it felt at times.
It was after these events made the news one day due to a lack of other news that the government decided to investigate, and after tests in game with NPC''s they determined something that had been a suspicion in many minds for a while, the NPC''s were completely and utterly sentient. The only thing seperating them from being just like us were some racial differences with the elves and dwarves and such, and a screen.
So of course the problem, they release the statement, but now what to do about Chaotic|Nonsense? They have killed potentially hundreds of innocents by now, even if only in the game. So, seeing as it was a confusing legal case, the game devs and creator were untrackable, so even though many wanted to hold them accountable, they couldn''t. So, the single most confused and unsure ruling of the century was made, all the members of Chaotic|Nonsense would be tracked down, brought to one location, and their Conciousness'' would be permanently transferred into their characters, normally it''s highly illegal to transfer your consciousness out of your body, but an exception was made, and their bodies cremated. They would be Imprisoned in the game, probably for eternity, considering their characters had access to immortality, and the creator and devs probably also downloaded themselves into immortal forms somewhere, probably near the server so as to maintain it.
So now here is where it all starts, a Brotherly Band of 6 friends and fiends, forcibly trapped in their favorite game. At least for all this trouble, the Devs and Creator themselves went out of their way to include Chaotic|Nonsense into the official update, giving them an official group, a big shoutout with a thanks for keeping things interesting for them, and some medals in their inventories. But enough about all this boring stuff, let''s get back into the story!
Chapter 2: Proper Introductions.
Now, Let us attempt to get back on track by starting properly. Amidst an otherwise uninteresting and uninhabited land, seven clear areas side by side, each the size of at least a city, inhabited the emptiness.
The first one towards the Northeast, containing many metal buildings, great and massive, each the size of at least two villages, filled with odd devices that at the moment patiently slumbered, waiting for the moment they would be awoken to construct many a great, powerful, and horrible thing for their owner and operator. While the distances betwen these were great and would normally take many hours to go from one to the next, a complex series of high speed rails with carts filled with materials, or occasionally, passengers, would zip to and fro when commanded, turning trips of hours into mere minutes.
This mad man who created and operated them was none other than a member of the infamous group Chaotic|Nonsense, known to those outside of the group as "The Creator", and to those inside as ''Al'' from his username ''YourGreatestAlloy''. Standing at a somewhat humble Five Feet Six Inches/One point six Meters, with metal plates of varying size and color patched onto and into his chest, back, and about his body, scars poking out from just beneath, and his left arm from the shoulder and down made entirely of metal, with unkept light and dirty brown hair, gone somewhat bronze from leftover residues of metal while working. The sight of him alone was something that filled many with some relief, as he alone never terrorized a village without some metal demon at his beck and call.
To the Southeast lies a mostly empty, rocky land, with many entrances to underground mines and tunnels. The aboveground houses many craters and scorch marks, and strewn about lay large weapons of war, catapults, ballistae, and such, as well as remains from fired rounds and previous battles. The tunnels were a labyrinth, winding and twisting wildly and unexpectedly, going deeper and deeper, the light soon leaving as no torches dare lit the tunnel, the air becoming harder and harder to breath as the residues of minerals and dust clogged the lungs. Not even to mention the seemingly random tracks, supports that only barely kept from a cave in, and after a certain point, all paths seem to go back to another you''ve been to before, and all sounds echo back discontinuously.
Living and enjoying their time in this area was another member of Chaotic|Nonsense, practically the snout-nosed mascot of the group, He was Known to those outside the group as "The Challenger". To those inside the group, the Kobold was Known as "Boldy". Yes, he was a Kobold and had the traits of one, standing at his full height of Four feet ten inches/one point four Meters, rough and pale pink skin, eyes more attuned to seeing in even the most pitch black than light, his half foot/tenth of a meter long muzzle ending in a snout, leading to his lungs adept at handling even the most toxic and inhospitable air, and his exceptional sturdiness, all from the races history of growing and adapting to life underground.
Next, to the South lies a still mostly empty land, but in a very different way. This emptiness wasn''t the emptiness of the wilderness or desert, where there was simply no sign of civilization to be seen. This was perhaps a worse emptiness, where a husk still remained, but with nothing left, a hollow emptiness haunting the land. In this land was what appeared to be a great capitol city with many buildings, jewelers and market stands, inns and taverns, all in well kept condition. Yet not a single soul could be seen, heard, or for those who could, be sensed to have ever been in the otherwise grand capitol city with immensely tall smooth walls surrounding it to the South, West, and East, with only one exit and entrance to the North. The only other oddity, was that in the center of the town there stood an archway, made of stone and engraved with runes, infused with magic to the core.
This land was overseen by a member of Chaotic|Nonsense whose exsistence was rumored, but there was no mass agreement on whether they actually existed or not. Those that believed he existed called him "The Observer". Of course to those in the Group, they knew he existed and they knew him as "Kelly". This was in reference to the fact that he is in fact, a skeleton. No glowing anywhere, nothing that obviously put him apart from any other average human skeleton, aside from the whole, walking around, talking, and being way too good at being stealthy, those were important.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
Next to the Southwest grew a large forest, rivers winding through and the sound of bird calls was clear on the wind. In this forest, the plantlife varied from place to place, and it was inhabited by many animals. However, among these animals were a handful of animals of importance, from griffons to drakes, each and every one of which has two things in common. Firstly, they all shared the same design brand somewhere on them, much alike cattle or other farmstock, and secondly, they all obeyed the master of the forest, the one that gave them those brands.
The master of the forest was yet another member of Chaotic|Nonsense, this time being known outside the group as "The Enforcer". He himself was a simple person, standing at a decent six-foot five-inches/one point nine meters with medium length black hair, blue eyes and a simple, if masculine, face. He made absolutely no effort to cover or care about his pointed ears, pretty much the only thing showing the fact he was indeed an elf. To those inside the group, they simply knew him as "Pat", and his animals as "Pat''s Pets".
Next to it at the Northwest was another area, of many smaller buildings, being only manor-sized on average. While not all in use, the ones that were in use towards the center contained a great wealth of many items, each house organized to a particular type of item, organized more and more the further in one went, as well as finding things of greater value. An example would be, weapons contained in the outside houses would generally be weaker, looted off of fallen novice adventurers, while those towards the center would often be more powerful and well made weapons with enchantments. These and much more are collected and managed by the creature known as "The Hoarder".
This creature is our next member of Chaotic|Nonsense, and is known to those inside the group as "Gimme". He also happens to be nine feet three inches/Two point eight meters at the moment, with arms whose fingertips reach to his knees standing up. He wears at least one layer of chain mail at any given time, and always carries around a massive sack, which rolls out to be large enough to contain Gimme himself. The reason I said ''at the moment'' earlier, to explain, is due to the fact that he is a troll. You see, Trolls, aside from their somewhat varied skintones, Gimme''s being a jade green, are most known for their immense appetites, impulsiveness, and their incredible variances in size. What is less known, is that all of these are brought on by the fact that after a very young age, all trolls are naturally in a permanent state that is very comparable to puberty, where their bodies keep on growing, albeit quite slowly. This leads to a need for more food to facilitate that growth, and as such an increased appetite, as well as the other symptoms due to this Puberty-Esque state.
To the North a truly massive castle loomed, threatening to blot out the sun with its immensity. Its walls going up to where the areas next to it ended, and its main body starting from the walls being tiered, as though a wedding cake, forty-five floors per tier, the bottom tier the length and width of an entire city, rivalling the size of the capitol city husk opposite to it, the upper tiers coalescing closer than the last.
At the topmost floor of the topmost tier, still reaching the size of one of the factories to the east, there was the living place the man who overlooked not only this area consumed by the castle, but the honorary leader of Chaotic|Nonsense himself, and the one rumored to be the most powerful of them. To those outside the group, he was known as "The Eradicator". To those inside the group, he was known as "The Emperor", mostly shortened to "Emp". He stood at a simple six feet/one point eight meters tall, with short brown hair, and brown eyes. If not for hisIncredibly colorful, gaudy robes and hats he always wore, he would be a plain, average human man.
To the center of all these, connected to them all is a simple meadow, otherwise completely uninteresting save for two things. Firstly, in the center lay a ring of rune-etched marble, twenty feet/six meters in diameter, from its inner edges a whirlpool of what seemed to be pure magic spiralled downwards, beckoning to any who see it to jump in. Secondly, just above this whirlpool, held up by six stone pillars and accessed by six railingless stone staircases, was a circular platform the same size as the whirlpool and just above it. On this platform was a circular table just above the center of the whirlpool, with six chairs surrounding it. Inside those chairs, the members of Chaotic|Nonsense sat, and had their first meeting since their imprisonment three days ago.
Chapter 3: Meetings, Dinners, and Plannings.
"Alright!" Said Emp, sitting in the chair to the north "Let''s get straight to it, First things first, we all used to our new bodies now?"
A quick round of Yeah''s and yes'' went through, followed by some comments by each member.
"Working out the arm was a bit tough at first, then I remembered it worked off of magic in the first place, after that it and the factories were both easy enough to work." Said Al, sitting to the northeast and moving his metal arm for emphasis.
"Had to get used to being a bit taller, but otherwise nothing nearly as big as you guys, the animals still respect me too. Like they should." Said Pat, sitting to the southwest and sounding rather smug near the end.
"All Good here! There''s not a thing in the mines that can be bug me, be it dark or air, I''m doin good!" Said Boldy, sitting to the southeast, the edges of his mouth going up in a part snarl-smile.
"Yeah, same here. Gotten used to the new arms, don''t have to bend down too far to pick stuff up." Said Gimme, currently resting said arms on the table and sitting to the northwest.
"I''m good. As it turns out, skeletons can sleep, so I''ve been napping and looking around mostly." Said Kelly, sitting to the south and resting his skull on his hand.
"Alright!" said Emp, leaning in a little as he spoke "Now that we''re all settled in, What do you guys think we should we do first in our new homeworld? I can''t find any motivations to do anything in specific." At this, the discussion began.
Kelly said "I say we take a load off and look around for a while, get to know the new homeland and relax."
Boldy said "Let''s get our hands on as much food and drink we can and have a huge celebration to ourselves!"
Gimme said "I say we go out on a looting spree to get the best and shiniest stuff we can get our hands on!"
Pat said "I say we use some magic and let them see our base, we''ve got it, so we should flaunt it."
But most surprising was Al, who said "I say we do what we normally do between events and grind for more resources, once we''ve got more resources we talk again."
At this, every single other member looked over at him, with Emp Saying "Hey Kelly, you''re the guy with experience in this, Is he still the real Al or do I zap him?"
"No, no. He''s the real one. But, are you certainyou''ve gotten enough sleep, right Al?" Said Kelly.
Al said "I mean, I don''t see the need to do something immediately, but we shouldn''t just kick back. I say we meet back in Emp''s castle in the main hall on the ground floor in a week, given the date. Come on guys, really thinkabout it.", Nudging Boldy who sat next to him.
At this, Boldy seemed stumped for a moment, before his grin grew just a little wider and said, "Actually, I agree,right guys?"
Upon seeing this, a chain reaction occurred and the others reacted as well. In the end they came to a mass agreement, continue life as ''normal'', and meet back in the castle in a week.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
But of course, life as normal meant different things for each of them. How could life be normal when their entire purpose was to shake the world up?
However, now that we''ve talked so much about them, let us perhaps mention some of this world they shake up, much more breifly. Now, in our ''game'' here, the world is comprised of 5 large continents, each of varying shapes and sizes. The one important for now, is a continent to the north. This continent was ruled by the Taren empire, your usual fantasy empire, and generally the most relaxed and least dangerous of the empires, minus the guardsmen of course. This is why most players chose this place as their spawnpoint (The place where new characters first appear in a game), to be more precise, new characters spawned from a portal in a large prominent church. This was the same for all other spawnpoints, and many in the world took this as meaning these new people were sent by some god from a far off land. It would certainly explain their many, many,many, quirks. However, they were generally a force for good, or neutral at worst. Aside from one very well known, and very feared group, who we have already discussed.
For the first time in a long while however, many rested easy, as Chaotic|Nonsense hadn''t done anything for months on end, and some were perhaps a touch hopeful that nothing would happen anytime soon, perhaps they had given up on their ways, after never reaching whatever their horrid goal was.
In the capitol city of this town lay the castle, a large thing that was made of simple stone, and housed the royals including King Jason Lucius Olivier, Queen Eleadra Olivier, Prince Jason Olivier the Second, and Princess Ellianne Olivier. Each being at the ages of forty-three, forty, twenty-three, and seventeen respectively. Currently these four were sitting down eating dinner together near the head of the table, which was frankly too long for only four people. And so they talked joyfully, of how the empire always got the most adventurers, of Jason the Second''s recent engagement to a foriegn noble, and of the respite from Chaotic|Nonsense.
This discussion was something mirrored in many other lands in the Empire and around the world. Many talked jovially of the long break from their antics. So they too talked, speaking of good harvests and comings of age, and of a new favorite topic, especially as gossip among nobles, the antics of many adventurers. At many a home, castle, estate, and other places of gathering, people talked and talked. Although one very unnerving thing was how many adventurers had been wearing worried looks on their faces for the past few days. One could occasionally hear them speak to eachother, slowly relaxing and going back to their normal states, but many wondered about why they wore such looks for those days.
Meanwhile, back at the table in the center of Chaotic|Nonsense''s base, they too talked and ate, reminiscing jovially about the funner ''events'' they''ve done in the past. Eventually, the topic turned to one involving the time they got Gimme to get a number of young dragons to chase him into the nearest town, it took them weeks to clean that up.
Then, Pat said "That reminds me, I''ve been wanting to try and do more with breeding dragons and drakes but I don''t have enough of them. So, Emp."
"What is it Pat?" Emp replied, wondering what he could have to do with this.
"In about a week before we meet back up to discuss what we''re going to do, I need you to spend two days out collecting some eggs from from the southern and eastern continents, thanks in advance." Pat replied,
"Could you explain why you can''t do this yourself, and why you can''t do it earlier?" Emp said,
Pat said "Firstly, I could do it myself, but I''ve sent myself and my animals tons of times to go get herbs and whatever for your potions, that and I''m not going to be able to fight off the parents for any really good eggs I want if they show up. I think it''s fine if I call in one favor. Secondly the reason I need it done in those two days is I''m fairly certain those are the days when most of the smaller dragons have laid their eggs, and those are easier to work with as a first generation test."
Emp said "Ah, fine. You make a good enough point, But I''m leaving in the morning of the day before we agreed to meet, and I''ll arrive in the evening for the meeting, Got that?"
Pat said "Yeah, I''m okay with that."
Emp said "You''re welcome then, Mr Polite." in a clear tone of sarcasm, and the rest of the table, including himself laughed joyfully. However it was a shame that this errand was only a cover up for a far more important matter, but I''m getting ahead of myself again, aren''t I? Well, I supoose I shall tell you more of that when the time comes. Do not worry, the time will arrive sooner than you think, it almost always does.
Chapter 4: The Last Minute
So, time passed, and life went on. The adventurers lost their worried looks, and the next few days went by. Over at the Abandoned City overseen by Kelly, Emp and Pat stood by the Archway near the center of town and spoke with eachother.
"Right then, see you tomorrow Emp, remember, the smaller the eggs the better." Pat said.
"See you tomorrow evening, then we''ll be even." Emp said, before turning to the rune-etched archway.
When Emp did so he raised a simple wooden staff he brought with him up and the runes began to glow, getting much brighter very quickly, the interior of the archway now appearing to ripple as though a pond. After its rippling subsided, a new motion obscured the archway, appearing like a waterfall and the same color as the runes. Emp purposefully and calmly moved his hands as though a conductor to the symphony of magic at work. The colors began to shift and once they shifted to his liking he stepped through the archway and the rift within, disappearing.
What we''ve just seen here, to put it in much simpler terms, was Emp using the archway to create a rift, a sort of door that ignores the laws of space, and walking through it to arrive to the southern continent.
Pat breathed in and sighed once the runes stopped glowing, ending the waterfall effect like turning off a shower. Pat called a messenger bird and sent it flying around, the agreed signal for the remaining members to meet immediately. After all, time was of the essence when you only have just one and a half days. So of course, upon seeing the bird fly past, each of them waiting for it, all of them did indeed meet up and began preparation immediately.
In the Taren Empire, many had already been up and about by now, but some of the lucky few had still gotten to sleep. Among these was the Empire''s one and only Princess, Princess Elianne Olivier, who had only just gotten up after a long night attending a noblemans dinner party in celebration of his son''s new marriage arrangements. She still had never gotten used to those late night parties that lasted until a few hours the next morning.
The Princess herself was roughly five feet and eight inches/one point seven meters tall, with flowing brown hair and blue eyes.
She slept until well into the day, her father not sending anyone to wake her as there was no rush at that time. Once she woke she dressed herself in one of the many royal dressess she owned and went about, walking over to and eating a simple breakfast in the castle garden, having had the servants bring it to her.
Some would find this a touch unreasonable if not for a few things, Firstly, they were servants and that was simply their job. Secondly, She often did this when she would eat alone anyways, enjoying the life around her in the garden if not at the table with family. Thirdly, she was renowned for being a kindly polite young lady, regardless of who she spoke to. Her father always made sure he wouldn''t raise someone rude and unseemly, even if he did spoil his daughter a touch excessively.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
And almost as if on cue, a voice spoke through the garden, over one of the flower bushes. It belonged to a man roughly six feet three inches/one point nine meters tall, with short black hair and ocean blue eyes. This man we have mentioned before, Jason Lucius Olivier.
"I had a feeling you''d be here Ellianne." Jason said, smiling at his daughter enjoying the company of the servants and flowers.
"Oh, Father!" Ellianne said, jumping up in her surprise, before relaxing more and smiling again "You know me so well."
"You''re my own daughter, of course I do." Jason said, before his tone settled from his current pleasant joy into a more serious one, "Now, sit back down. I need to talk to you about an important issue, this can''t wait." At this Elianne''s sat down and gave not a moment of attention to anything but her father. He seldom got like this, at least to her directly, so something must be important.
Jason said "Elianne, I trust that the news has reached you too that the ones menacing the Eastern and Southern continents haven''t been seen in almost a full season, and are believed dead, Haven''t you?"
Ellianne said "The ones that call themselves..." lowering her voice to a whisper, as though their name brought misery by being spoken, "Chaotic Nonsense?".
Jason Said "Yes, them. Now in celebration of their disappearance one of the Eastern Contnent''s rulers has invited myself, your mother, and many of the other rulers to their palace for a grand feast. So I''m going to be gone for a while. What makes it different this time is not only am I going to be gone with your mother, but your Brother is also going off to the west to get married and settle there as we talked about yesterday. So you will be alone here, and I want to make sure you hear this from me. Are you listening?"
At this Ellianne nodded, now looking somewhat more relaxed at hearing it was just a celebration of their disappearance. While many children had werewolves to haunt them, even being as old as she was Elianne still shuddered at the stories and rumors of what Chaotic|Nonsense did to so many people. Some said The Eradicator even destroyed the very souls of those he killed, and other horrible things about the rest.
After her father asked, she nodded and said softly "Yes father, I''m listening."
"While we are gone,you are not allowed to leave the castle for anything, do you understand that?" Jason said, his voice showing the sternness of a father and authority of a king.
"Y-Yes father, but why?" Elianne said,
"Because I worry about you enough with your brother here and he won''t be this time. This is purely for your own well-being. While I will always firmly believe I am your father first and a king second, I still have my duties I must do. I''ve already instructed the guards to not let you out of the castle, and I''m leaving later today. I''ll see you when I get back, I love you dear." Jason said.
Elianne stepped in, giving her father a brief hug, smiling and saying "I love you too father, I''ll be sure not to do anything that would worry you. Goodbye."
In a far off lands factories of metal gears, pulleys, and pistons all slowed to a halt at the will of their operator, finished in bringing their masters horrid visions to fruition. Comparatively smaller distances away, a crystal as blue as ice was taken from its storage place, a great beast was being saddled, a weapon carefully selected from an armory, and rope tying practiced.
Chapter 5: [Prologue]
In the Taren Empire, it was a beautiful day, it was a shame King Jason had just left the other day and missed it. Not that many could feel sad, not with the celebrations held by the townsfolk,
"The harvest has arrived!", "The world is free of Chaotic Nonsense!" And other similar cheering was in the streets, it was joyous to say the least, even some of the more stalwart adventurers joining in their own ways, mostly just jumping for some reason.
This celebration was also, unknown to the townsfolk, being broadcast throughout the world, our world to be more precise. Not only were many adventurers streaming the moment live, some adding their commentary out of the game, and even on ''Fantasy Today'' the new news network that focused exclusively on matters in the game.
Meanwhile in the land split to seven parts, our dear members of Chaotic|Nonsense were also going about their own business.
Al was finishing up some machines, some large, with spherical bodies and metal legs like spiders, the gears helping them to move exposed on the outside, but that was fine. Some others he had already made were much smaller machines, holding scrolls with green runes etched in, and softly glowing crystals.
Boldy was getting in as much last minute rope and chain tying practice in as possible, as well as weight lifting with some of the rocks above his caves.
Kelly had already done his part, and was calmly waiting in position. His position? Posing as a royal guard, which was surprisingly easy, since he only had to keep it up for less than a day. How, you ask? Well, position swapping and self altering spells can be really useful for going incognito, if you use them as Kelly did, swapping positions with the guard''s skeleton and altering himself to match the other skeleton better. By the way, did you know, One, Having a mismatched skeleton to your body for as little as a second is apparently enough to kill a man, two, The body odor of a dead person can be cleared up with an illusion spell, and three, An empty chest cavity can provide a lot of room to hide things, like say, smoke bombs or explosive crystals.
Pat was saddling and pampering his fastest large person griffon. The griffon in turn, nuzzled up against Pat. Pat had control over the beast and its respect, as it should be.
Gimme was searching through his hoard for the things he wanted to bring. His ''shopping list'' went as follows: Two Bottles of rather effective healing potion, A large Greatclub, a Crystal glowing a brilliant ocean blue, and a large sack for himself.
For the others he brought a rag, a bottle of effective sleeping potion, and some rope, for Pat and Boldy. For Everyone he brought a small, fit in the palm of your hand, clear crystal each.
Emp was still out trying to steal some small dragon eggs, with minor success. So far only one from a brown scaled one. He currently had his eyes on the eggs of what was nicknamed the "Chameleon Dragon." You get two guesses why it''s called that.
Pat, Al, Boldy, and Gimme all met up in the abandoned city by the arch, a brief going over the plan done by Pat.
"Okay, first things first, we all need to attune the portal stones Gimme brought us." A brief round of nodding, then they held the clear stones inside the Arch. The crystals shined briefly, then settled into shifting between all the colors known.
Pat said, "Good, now, the plan."
In the streets people danced with each other, laughing and singing.
"The first one in is Gimme, once there, he''ll drop the Waterform crystal in the well and do whatever he wants, just provide a minor distraction, and keep it behind the castle,"Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
On ''Fantasy Today'' a news anchor was pointing to the live feed from their reporter in the field, getting it from their feed. He said, "Yes folks as you can see the people are celebrating currently in the Taren Empire. We will keep this live footage up for the next hour, we here at Fantasy Today can all agree, it''s about time to focus on the good news.
"Then after that, Al will come in from the right with the machines from myself and Boldy direct porting you and the machines in, you''ll provide a larger distraction,"
Ellianne sat in the garden within the castle walls, enjoying looking at the beautiful flowers and talking to one of her favorite maids.
"Then, when they notice the trouble from front, left, and right, being the elementals, Gimme, and Al respectively, they''ll want to fortify in the back of the castle at the throne room,"
Out in the southern continent, Emp had just finished fighting and killing the Mother Chameleon dragon, and started gathering two eggs, starting with the smallest, then taking the biggest. It didn''t take much to levitate them behind him, what was more annoying was that he''d have to ask Pat to come with him to get the dragon hide and scales off it, and he''d owe him one again. ''Ah well, It''s worth it,'' Emp thought, ''Chameleon Dragons are stupidly rare, hopefully he''ll let me keep a good chunk of it when he''s done."
"When they get there, Kelly will detonate the explosive crystals he should''ve been laying near the foundations all throughout the castle, and he''ll make sure the princess isn''t crushed in the rubble. After all of this, Myself and Boldy will fly in on the griffon, Boldy will swing down with the chain and pick up the princess, followed by using the potion and rag to knock her out. I''ll be controlling the griffon. Once we have the princess, I''ll shoot a fire arrow at a random building, when you see a burning building, everyone uses their stones and ports out. Me and Boldy will each bring the griffon and princess back in our ports respectively. Everybody understand?"
A round of nods went by, and Pat said, "Good, now we start on go, and remember" They all smiled, knowing what he was going to say next, "Make sure you have some fun. GO!"
A rush of activity, Pat and Boldy putting their hands on the archway, activating it to show the town square of the capital city just by the well, and Gimme jumping through.
On Gimme''s end, he rushed through, dropping the waterform crystal into the well, then rushing to a soldiers barracks to the left.
From there he scared off most of the soldiers, realizing that he was ''The Hoarder''. The few that stayed ended up the same way, swing, crush, stain on the greatclub. Once they were gone he filled his sack to the brim with cannonballs from the barracks, and began playing some mix between baseball and a shooting gallery.
When Elliane heard some commotion to the left of the castle, she began to rush for the windows to that side.
Pat said, "Good, Alright you''re up Al." The arch showed the other side of the castle, then what appeared to be iridescent lightning struck Al and his machines in succession, teleporting them to city on the other side of the castle.
Once Al was in, he wasted no time, immediately ''Mana Linking'' as he called it, to his machines. The best way to describe mana linking, is like a magical wireless connection, except instead of using computers to control it, you use it with intent and mana, either using specific intent such as with his arm or the factories, or vague such as with these machines. This was how Al operated his mechanical arm, and his factories. He was also the inventor of the technique, and nobody else used it as far as he knew.
The machines gears began to move, and so they gained more and more speed, and started stomping around everywhere, their long, pointed, spidery legs making quick work of what roads they had.
Elliane heard a much, much, louder commotion to the right of the castle and couldn''t help but rush over, she didn''t make it far enough to see what was to the left, but she figured whatever made that sound to the right was more important.
Pat and Boldy quickly hopped onto the Griffon, rushing through the arch as it showed the sky above the Capital City.
The newscaster from earlier said, "As we can see from the live reporters feed, not only is ''The Hoarder'' still alive and causing havoc to the left of the castle, we can also see another infamous member, ''The Creator'', is currently leading large spider-like machines to the right of the cas- Breaking news! We cut to our second reporters feed as we see what we can recognize as water elementals coming from the well!"
In the castle, the guards and princess had retreated to the throne room. They began to barricade the doors to hold out for adventurers to arrive. While some believed that this was the end, little did they know that while for some individuals it was, for the rest of the world, they were living out the beginning of a fairy tale.
Chapter 6: |Fairy Tale|
BOOM!
With a great explosive force, the ceiling and walls of nearly the entire castle collapsed, which only revealed further to the inhabitants that weren''t particularly flattened the sheer madness going on outside. Water elementals crawling out of the well at a rate the capitol guards and adventurers could barely hold back. Giant mechanical things with bodies and legs like spiders and covered in gears that emitted steam crawling around wrecking the roads herded by Al, piloting the largest one. Gimme tossing cannonballs into the air before swinging his club into them, propelling them at random guards or passerby, as though some mixture between a shooting gallery and baseball.
In all of this chaos, who could blame the royal guards for not paying enough attention to notice the relatively innocuous sight of a griffon ridden by our elvish friend Pat and dear kobold Boldy, Boldy locking a chain around his waist that Pat was holding. Of course it didn''t help that one of the castle guards was in fact Kelly wearing a skin suit, throwing a smoke bomb creating a cloud of smoke, obscuring everything. Only those paying enough attention from outside the smoke would notice Boldy, swinging into the smoke empty handed, and leaving with none other than Elliane Olivier, the princess of the Taren Empire!
Ah, good, we''re caught up to speed now. Time to continue where we left off before.
While in the air, Boldy quickly soaked the rag in sleeping potion and used it on the princess, knocking her out. Once Pat saw this, he took out a shortbow he had with him, and knocked an arrow. He cast [Contagion Flame Arrow], igniting the arrow with an infectious fire, then he let it fly onto a mostly untouched house.
Once they saw the burning building, each member of Chaotic|Nonsense pulled out their crystals. They channeled a small amount of mana into the crystals, which glowed brightly, before that light enveloped each of the members, as well as in two cases, an extra griffon and princess.
In the capitol, the large spidery machines followed a last intention given to them by Al before he left,
"Go wild." Continuing to stomp around faster and faster, destroying and raising the casualties ever higher until eventually adventurers and guards managed to knock them over and break them.
The elementals meanwhile kept crawling out until the fortieth, then no more came out. The elementals, well they seemed to just hate everything, so they caused their own havoc with their brutal Melee [Crashing Waves] attacks.
Through the arch, Pat, Kelly, Al, Gimme, and Boldy appeared, each after using the crystals, Pat with the Griffon in tow, and Boldy with a freshly knocked out and tied up princess.
After Boldy put the princess down, they all looked at each other and after a moment of deliberation shouted.
"We did it!", followed by high fives all around, or low fives in all of Boldy''s cases, and all of Gimme''s. What? Why the weird look? They may be terrible murderers, arsonists, thieves, and rude on occasion, but they were still guys that could celebrate with a high five.
They then split up, each going to their own lands to get one key each. These five keys, when all used together, would be able to unlock the front door to Emp''s castle without his master key. It was a way of Emp saying, "I trust you enough to come in while I''m out, but only if you all agree on it".
They entered his castle with the still sleeping princess and went for the room housing the staircase up on the ground floor, the grand banquet room. From there they began setting up everything they brought from Gimme''s hoard once they were back.
Out in the southern continent, Emp stopped to stretch a moment, he had felt a little stiff after dealing with dragons all day. He was currently levitating seven small eggs and one large one behind him. The small eggs from white, black, red, brown, blue, and yellow scaled dragons, and one being the chameleon dragon''s egg. The large one was also another one of the chameleon dragon''s eggs.
Emp got up and thought, ''Well, I best start getting back, can''t be late for the meeting.'' He brought up his wooden staff, doing what he did at the arch before to call up the rift, and stepping through with the eggs to find himself just ahead of the arch, and a note at his feet.
"We''ve decided to hold the meeting in your castle today, meet us at the ground floor''s staircase room. Signed -K."
At this Emp felt honestly quite saddened, he had grown to love their nice round table meetings and dinners, right in the middle of that neutral space, nobody had to worry about knocking this over or don''t do that, it felt homey.
In the castle everything was up, which was a banner, a curtain hung from a chandelier to the ground after moving the table that was beneath it, a small but comfortably sized feast made up of food Gimme had nicked and Pat either grew or recently put down and cooked. Overall, a feast for for slightly more than eight people, with no desserts and freshly cooked exotic meats and plants.
It had been then that Elliane woke up, and upon realizing five of the members of Chaotic|Nonsense were around her, five of her six most feared people, her eyes went wide and she nearly seemed to freeze, not daring to move an inch.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Pat saw her eyes open and rushed over then said, "Okay, look. We need you to do two things now that you''re awake, firstly, you need to keep quiet, not a sound. Secondly, you''re going to stand behind that curtain, and do not move from it. Now."
At those last words Elliane couldn''t think of anything to do except, ''Don''t anger the people who very well could be living avatars of evil.'' So she went behind the curtain, wondering what in the world was going to happen, and silently hoping this was some cruelly vivid nightmare.
Now that everything was in place, Al used a long range mana link he set up before with the smaller machines he built and later scattered around the city while causing havoc. It was extremely taxing on his mana to reach through that far with the link, but he only need to give one command, so he didn''t have to maintain the link too long. This command was to channel the mana in the storing crystals into their scrolls. This cast a simple remote viewing spell, into the throne room, and showed it to the capital. The remote viewing spell was almost identical to the rift in appearance, but trying to walk through it would have the same effect as walking through curtains with a projection on them. Except unlike the curtains, you''d still see it, just from a different angle.
Once Al had finished he said to the others, "I just barely managed that, but now I''m completely out of mana. I really need to work with Emp on finding some way to make that easier. Ah well, some other time, not today of all days."
The townspeople were shocked and devastated, not only were their festivities interrupted by Chaotic|Nonsense themselves, but the princess had been kidnapped!
Now they could all see, projected into the sky in many places, the view of an incredulously opulent throne room, tables of jade with gold trim and chandeliers of gems and silver, But the more important detail was the people they saw, five of the members of Chaotic|Nonsense, now getting into positions around the door. Many also wondered, what were they doing? And why did that banner say-
Emp arrived and found the keys in his door, the door still being open.
He walked through the various halls and rooms until he reached the Throne and Banquet room, only when he opened the door to enter...
"SURPRISE! Happy birthday!" Everyone, with the exceptions of Emp and Elliane, shouted out loud, surprising Emp.
Emp stopped, smiled with pure joy,laughed and then said, "And here I was, ready to remind you all with some lightening strikes, when you were just making it a surprise party! Sorry for doubting you guys, I had no reason to but I did anyways. Oh yeah, Pat, I still have the eggs." He pointed his thumb to the eight eggs behind him.
Pat said, "Well, first things first, Eradicator, we''re using some remote viewing spells to show off right now, so all of the Taren Empire''s capitol city can hear and see us right now, but more importantly, I did kind of lie about the eggs. The smaller ones are just like a chickens eggs, yolk and white, nothing will actually hatch from those, but I suppose something might from the big one. More importantly, we have extra food for a while, which we''ll need!" Pat smiled at the last part.
"What do you mean by ''Which we''ll need?" Emp asked, inquisition in his voice,
Al said, "Well, we all pitched in and got you a present together. So,"
Gimme continued, "From all of us,"
Kelly continued, "Just for you,"
Boldy said, "We hope you enjoy your birthday present!"
At Boldy''s words they ripped back the curtain to reveal The Taren Empire''s Princess, Elliane Olivier!
At this Elliane realized and thought, "I-I''m a b-birthday present to The Eradicator. I''m his... birthday present.. For, THE Eradicator. The one that''s rumored to destroy souls for fun. The one said to lead Chaotic|Nonsense. I''m.. his... birthday present." She began to tremble, struggling not to faint, and to comprehend what was happening.
Emp said, "You guys... You guys,"
Emp stopped to breath in,
Emp finished, his eyes welling up and crying tears of joy, "You guys are the best friends a man could ask for!"
He rushed over to Elliane, grabbed her by the shoulders and faced her towards the rest of the group and said to them, "What other friends would get someone a princess for their surprise birthday party? None of them!"
At this they laughed and smiled, and unanimously agreed to an unspoken question, the meeting could wait another day.
The rest of the night was spent in many various ways, for Chaotic|Nonsense, they showed off the rest of their night of eating and laughing to and at the capital city, eating steaks of one of Pat''s oldest dragons that wasn''t doing anyone else or itself any good anymore. Emp seemed to get a good kick out of hearing what they did to the city while they were there, and Gimme happily showed off the loot that was still in his bag to the others. Mostly armors and weapons that tended to be broken or bent in one place or another, and a few leftover cannonballs.
For the others of that world, they all watched or heard the news with shock and worry. They were forced to accept that Chaotic|Nonsense still both lived and thrived, and that they had the Taren Empire''s only princess, captured in the center of a storm with no eye.
For those of the other world that heard on Fantasy Today, some hoped something would be done to stop them and get the princess back, while others logged in, and already tried to rally other players and make plans to get her back.
So ladies and gentlemen, this is only the beginning of our story, so allow me to start it like a true beginning.
Once upon a time in a land of fantasy and adventure, an evil group of six men lived, causing havoc and mischief wherever and whenever they pleased to sate their boredom. They were powerful and deadly and it seemed none could oppose them, not even dragons of old. One time it was the birthday of their most powerful member and leader, so the others went and kidnapped the fairest princess in the lands to give to him as a present, for him to lock her away in the topmost floors of his evil castle, where he himself resided.
Where it goes from our beginning? Perhaps some young lad who stole to live will rise up to bring the princess back? Or perhaps a glorious knight in shining armor? A mage of unrivaled arcane knowledge? An overzealous paladin leading a new crusade? The gods themselves granting their blessings to a chosen one who has passed their holy trials? A drunken man with a strong will and booze to spare?
Well, if you wish to know, please, read on dearest of wonderful readers. Come see not how deep the rabbit hole goes, but to watch my attempt to reach the bottom with a shovel, and dig it ever deeper.