VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 113: Unforeseen Consequences
The man only known as Revenant strolled through the forest with purpose and drive. His eyes never left the road in front of him as his mind constantly sorted through the information he had on hand.
Even when a group of players were prowling nearby, constantly shouting to each other about some ’World Boss’ lurking around here, he did not look their way. They were of no concern to him, although he couldn’t help but scoff to himself at their ignorance.
A World Boss appearing here was simply an idiotic concept. The morons had probably just wiped to an elite or were trying to scam people with false information. Revenant had seen plenty of that before, and neither of them interested him.
No, he had no need to interact with morons like that. They were all beneath him, just stepping stones in his path to power and if they made the mistake of crossing his path, or even worse attacking him, then he would have no choice but to wipe them out again and again until there was nothing left to come back.
That was only fair.
After harvesting and buying up all the Lord’s Orchid he could find, Revenant had set out on the quest for Lohar, the flamboyant alchemist, although he had skipped the process of accepting the quest in the Mage Tower. That could come after he had gotten what he needed.
It was a quest that no one had ever taken, as it’s reward was pitiful and the details were sparse, but afterwards people had stumbled on the location in question by accident and linked it to the quest.
All of this was fine with Revenant, as the reward was not what he was after, but the creature he was supposed to defeat to complete the quest.
Of course, part of the issue with the quest was that while it mentioned "Phagan Activity" a ’Phagan’ was not the name of a specific entity. It was more of a general classification for a variety of undead. It was like referring to Tigers, Lions and Housecats all as simply Felines. Technically true, but not helpful in the slightest when you needed to know what you were going up against.
But Revenant knew already, and it was why he needed all the Lord’s Orchid. Weakening this specific undead enough for him to perform the subjugation ritual was going to be tough, but he was prepared for it. This was a necessary step in his ascension of power.
However, with all of his expectation and knowledge, Revenant was left utterly baffled when he finally arrived at the ruined town of Baruk.
Corpses, the dead and unmoving kind, littered the ground in various states. Some of them were carved apart with slicing weapons, some of them beaten to death while others had been reduced to smouldering and charcoaled wrecks. Wisps of black flames still clung to a few of these corpses, hinting at the destruction that had only happened recently.
’This... No, this can’t be right. This shouldn’t be happening. People shouldn’t find this place for at least another month, and it should take longer to discover the method for killing the ghosts.
This is... what in the hell is going on here?’
Revenant staggered through the ruined town, glancing all around him at the various corpses as if he was waiting for them to jump to their feet and shout ’Surprise! Only kidding!’
But none of them did, as amusing as that might have been. It was only after a few moments did a strike of horrifying realisation strike him, as he turned and rushed over to the Church his target called home.
’Please... Please don’t be dead. Please god don’t be dead!’ He pleaded in his mind, grabbing the handle of the church door only for it to explode into a hail of splinters the next second. Revenant was thrown backwards, crashing into his own loyal zombie followers and sending all of them tumbling across the ground, and he was not the only one.
Belladonna bounced across the ground, before planting her hand and using the momentum to flip onto her feet as she immediately sunk into a fighting stance. Two spears formed out of a dark, malevolent energy shot from the darkness of the church’s interior as Belladonna stepped to the side.
She weaved around the first and caught the second just before it pierced through her head, only for both spears to dissolve into wisps of black smoke the next second.
"YOU?!" Revenant shouted as he clambered to his feet, staring at the incredulous woman in front of him with disbelief and absolute confusion.
The shout naturally drew Belladonna’s attention as she frowned deeply at the new arrival, first in just as much confusion, before her gaze traced over his general appearance.
Spooky looking edgelord in dark armour, pale faced and miserable while being followed by a pair of stinking, carpet ruining undead? Now where had she heard such a description before?
"Hey!" She shouted back, jabbing an accusatory finger towards the strange edgelord,
"You’re the asshole that bought up all the Orchids in the tower! What? You couldn’t leave me with at least one or two just to start off? What kind of manners is that you dick?"
Revenant recoiled in even more surprise at her response, not just the fact that she recognised him, which should have been impossible as they had never actually met, but that her first real interaction with him was to instantly insult him.
However he didn’t get a chance to respond as a groaning roar came from within the church before a thick, chalk white hand gripped the edge of the doorway.
A behemoth of a man, easily over 7 foot tall, and clad in full plate armour pulled himself from the depths of the church and stepped out into the outside world. This giants armour was dark, twisted and gothic almost like it was trying to match the same armour that Revenant wore.
A tattered blue cloak draped down his back as its ends were torn apart, giving making it stop half way up his legs instead of behind his calf’s like it was supposed to. This cloak connected to his shoulders, which were lined with fur which was itself matted with long dried blood.
A pair of horns curled from the forehead of the giant’s helmet, like the horns of a demon, whilst a skull filled the face plate of the helmet, giving it an endless snarl.
Two crimson flames filled the skulls empty eye sockets acting as its eyes, which immediately locked onto Belladonna as the Giant slammed down the bone crushing maul that it carried and let out another guttural roar.
