ALL NOVEL 63. A Tale of The Past
Aurora sat down again, opposite Gareth who was still in a state of shock, mindlessly sipping at his drink. She decided to wait till he was a little more responsive to her words, taking the time to sip on her cocktail as she waited for him to recover.
After a minute, a semblance of clarity had returned to his eyes as he looked back at her, moistening his lips as he started to speak.
“So… you are really Chester? And time travelled…? It would at least explain some of the questionable decisions you had made. Say I buy all this, tell me, what happened to cause the destruction in that.. illusion?”
Aurora let out a slight sigh of relief as she crossed her legs, resting her elbows on the table with her hands clasped.
“So, as you are aware, I have put a lot of resources into Caelus Online. Caelus is the catalyst for everything. As recent revelations that have come to light have shown, the Roman gods, as it is understood, created a link for us, those on earth, to travel to another world, Caelus. For the next three months, those from Earth will interact with Caelus like it is a game, until the 27th of December, when everything goes to shit.”
Gareth seemed to be closely paying attention, appearing to be calming down from the earlier scare as he listened to her words.
“On the 27th, at around ten in the morning, the world will be hit with a sudden increase in mana levels, mana being the energy I use to do magic, and it will become accessible to everyone. But it doesn't just stop with mana, those who entered Caelus will pass out for a short period as they transform into their avatars, for lack of a better term. And yes, I mean as their bodies of whatever race along with the power gained. It was believed that it all had to do with the soul which was what entered the other world, but all humanity had was conjecture.”
Letting out a sigh, Aurora took a sip of her drink as she continued speaking.
“The how aside, mass panic was the immediate result, as you could imagine, with people starting to transform and everyone able to feel mana. Some people hid, others took to the streets to find out what was going on, and others, like the imbeciles they are, started to loot and steal. Within an hour of the first signs of mana, we found the first waves of monsters. Nothing too major to begin with, but more than the peaceful and inexperienced world could handle. Goblins, wolves, bears, the occasional orks, you get the idea. They all started to appear everywhere, urban and rural.”
The colour Gareth had managed to recover on his face once again vanished as the weight of her words weighed upon his mind, as the realisation of the untold amount of lives that could be lost dawned upon him.
“It is as you imagine, scenes of monsters roaming the streets of London occurring worldwide, slaughtering and much worse. The military moved quickly, but imagine what would happen when after the first few shots their weapons ended up overheating their guns, causing them to explode as the heat spread to their ammunition? Why you might ask? Simple, mana. It impacts everything in the world. Metals become slightly stronger as they are reinforced by the energy, life forms gain more power as the mana floods their cells, and the gunpowder in their weapons? More reactive. Vastly so.”
Gareth’s expression became one of horror. Aurora could easily imagine what was going through his head, that being the same things that went through hers when she had experienced the Upheaval for the first time. The realisation that quite literally every weapon that the world currently had would become useless. The threats to both domestic and international security would be immeasurable.
Aurora took another sip of her drink to let Gareth think over her words for a moment before she resumed her story.
“Thankfully the military was well trained enough to fight close quarters against goblins, but the bears and wolves? Not so much. It was thanks to those who had played Caelus that such enemies were dealt with. But as you can imagine, those people who quickly grasped how to use their newfound power either helped fight the monsters, or in a few rare cases ganged together to exert their power over others.”
Aurora let a displeased expression play on her face as she mindlessly fiddled with the corner of the cloth napkin in front of her.
“The sources of the monsters were found soon after that, rifts that effectively led to what would commonly be known as dungeons, but act more like a dimensional bridge. That's not to say all monsters came from there, some formed naturally, but the majority do come from the rifts. Technicalities aside, their exits were locked down by security forces and those with the power and will to fight, but ended up remaining until their cores were removed at a later date once things calmed down”
Aurora stood back up and walked over to the window, starting to appreciate the high-heeled sandals that brought her closer to her original height. She looked down at the street as the traffic passed through, comparing it to the troubled time she was speaking of.
“This sort of chaos lasted for around a week as the military with the assistance of the law-abiding players worked to clear up the outbreaks, while society somewhat normalised. During this time, there were several groups who popped up and took independent control of certain towns and other areas, but generally, peace was established.”
“The government in response to the world's sudden change went on to establish a state of emergency, passing several laws that forced the creation of a new department to oversee the Caelus players and those that gained power over the course of these events. Some took it well, others not so well.”
Aurora turned back to face Garth who was intently focused on her as she leaned against the windowsill, folding her arms underneath her chest.
“The government attempted to temporarily restrict access to these dungeons, as well as Caelus Online, in a push to make it so that only the military could level up and attain power in their fears of the various potential internal and external security threats. That However caused major protests from the wider population, escalated when additional dungeons opened up, causing incidents such as the Heathville High massacre in the US. The need for the population to be able to defend themselves changed the government's stance quite quickly, forcing them to create the Ministry of Extradimensional Threats and Abnormalities, or META for short.”
Stifling a smirk at what she assumed to be an intentional acronym that Gareth seemed oblivious of, Aurora continued to speak, wondering what Gareth’s expression would be when he realised.
“META was a body that effectively acted like the standard fantasy adventurers guild, contracting outside civilians to deal with various jobs on a case-by-case basis. It's a little more complex than that, but that’s the basic view. You can just imagine the uproar in the commons when it was announced.”
Seeing Gareth give a slight smile at the image of the politicians in an uproar, Aurora glanced over her shoulder at the street as she spoke.
“Anyway, with monsters, magic and internal instability, many opportunities presented themselves. Weapons manufacturing, construction, magical research, defence contracting, and the list goes on.”
For the first time during her speech, the light in Gareth's eyes changed and a glint of realisation washed over his face as he slapped the table.
“That's why you had Sasha working on acquiring those companies! The private military company confused me, especially when I heard you had asked them to play Caelus, but it all makes sense. So, what's the play?”
Aurora let an overjoyed grin play on her face as she leaned back, her hands supporting her on the windowsill.
“Well, I need an organised force of soldiers for both sides, Caelus and Earth. On Caelus to gain power within one of the major nations which would give us access to many things such as land, resources, power over the other players and so on. On Earth, initially, it will be to protect Branford group assets and locations, while also aiding the local population and preventing particularly nasty events that I can remember. And after that? Having a force under us will give us a massive advantage when we are at the negotiating table with the government.”
Gareth leaned back in his chair having become pale again, his face a mix of awe and horror.
“A power play? You can't seriously think that will work, do you? You're not trying to take over the country or something insane like that, right?”
Aurora chuckled as she dismissively waved her hand at his concerns.
“God, taking over the country? Way too much work. No, the idea is to become indispensable to the country with enough sway to force certain things to happen. And yes. I do think it will work, and quite well at that.”
Aurora walked back to her seat and grabbed her bag hanging on the back of her chair, pulling out her earlier drawing from earlier and passing it over to Gareth who eyed it with scrutiny.
