Creation Online

THIRD PERSON POV

Back in the lunar palace, Hildelith looked at her palm. The eye of worlds called to her with excitement. The White world had sure been annoying and scary but it brought a sense of adventure she still wanted. She could get this from her world or make another but she felt like letting one grow a bit was best before making another.

It would seem the game agreed if not it wouldn't have let her use the eye. With a smile, she made to activate it when a whinny reached her. The sound of hooves trotted into the palace and stopped to look around.

Zeus.

His eyes were sad, huge, and round. It would seem even horses got bored. Being left behind by Haero most of the time to train on Sol and now left behind to go to Vaustaris, it made sense how abandoned the horse felt.

'I guess I'll be teaching someone how not to treat a pet'. She wiggled her fingers at him and the horse trotted forward. Aether spawned a very realistic apple in her arm and she fed the horse. The sound of crunching lulled her into the thought of having an orchard here. Her boys and girls would love to taste them.

'Akasha add this fruit to the various weird things you're listing for the ecology'.

'Okay'. The tiny chirp in her mind made her chuckle. Hildelith had to admit she liked Akasha doing this as then when she used her incarnate to visit she would be just as wowed as the players.

"Alright boy. It's time for me to go". He whinnied in response and she realized he didn't want to be left behind. Sighing she thought hard.

Come with her or let him have an avatar on Vaustaris. 'Hmmh'. She looked him over. Then her eyes glinted. "Oh I know. You, my boy are going to create a breed of horses that only royalty will ride". With a hand flourish she made a template. It was easy to make given it was a normal pegasi template.

With a snap, she willed it to be. On all continents, Pegasis spawned.

"Now you. Go down there and find a companion. And when my boy comes for you. Give him war". I chuckled at the thought of Haero trying to drag Zeus home.

'Do tell me when that happens so I'll watch'. She joked. The horse whinnied or was it a snicker and she tapped his head. The body slumped, the soul thrown down to the mortal realm.

"Now, if there's nothing else". Looking around she smiled seeing nothing else that needed her attention. With a giddy jump, she activated the eye.

****

[You have spawned in a SafeZone]

[Leaving SafeZone begins combat mode]

[To log out return to a safe zone]

The room Hilde appeared in was dimly lit. A bit of red and yellow light filtering in from wierd windows. The windows looked like they were meant to keep things in or out. The air was heavy with sulfur and her nostrils itched from the ash.

Blue eyes made a quick scan of the room and found things of interest.

First, fortunately, the place wasn't all white. That topped any other discovery for the day in Hilde's mind. The second was the abandoned vibe she got from the place. It wasn't the dust or soot accumulating or the silence that rang in the air.

It was just the absence of presence around her. Unlike the destroyed white world that screamed ruins here was just, forsaken.

The room was large. To the right was a bed covered with white sheets. It was king-sized and carved out of wood that closely resembled mahogany. Her thoughts were screaming finally. Maybe she could just loot this bed and spare her spending MVC for those growing ass kids.

'Or they could make their beds'.

The ground was made of marble that Hilde couldn't discern due to the red of the environment. The curtains covered what she expected to be grand doors leading to a balcony.

To her back was a door that when opened led to a dresser of sorts. It was filled with different clothes of varying sizes. Mostly male. They were all sewn with fine embroidery and while she was unsure how long this place had been abandoned the dust and cobwebs gave an idea.

Hilde found her fingers touching the material hanging from the wardrobe. Each one was soft and warm to the touch. Like the finest of silks.

"Hopefully no one minds."

All the clothes in her inventory later, Hilde stood before the next door. This one was a double door with rusted bronze knobs and intricate designs on it.

"It called the room a safe zone. Does that make outside not a safe zone?".

Taking a breath Hilde tensed and waited for just a moment before she tilted the bronze-rusted knob and pulled open one of the large doors.

The system greeted her actions with a notification flickering in her vision.

[QUEST]

[The Tower's Conquest]

Once standing proud, now seized and lost, the Tower lies shattered, torn from its brethren amidst an ethereal veil of ash and crimson waves. Does its path lead skyward, or will it plunge into the rifts?

If divinity hears, grant us salvation; yet if your power falters, let vengeance rain upon our mortal husks. We beseech thee, O heavens. - Alezk, Sovereign of the Tower.

Conquer the Tower.

[Rank: A]

[Rewards: To be unveiled]

[Failure: -10 ORP, -1 level]

Hilde was relieved to see something like this. The oddity of the Center of worlds still felt off and just weird to her.

Still, it was impossible to ignore the chills the words in this quest gave her.

'Whatever happened here, it's not normal'.

The window refused to budge and the door was the only way out. Her thoughts couldn't help but wonder about all of it.

It was obvious she would experience what it was sooner rather than later.

The door creaked as it was opened revealing a hallway drowned in red light. Her feet took one step out of the door her eyes peeled for any movement.

"Taking the horror theme too far guys" she whispered with a slight gulp.

The moment both legs got past the threshold the door slammed close behind her like it couldn't wait to be shut.

Then a line of words appeared in her head.

[You have exited a Safe zone]

Harbinger spawned into her left hand her right already on its strings ready to shoot.

A soft wind blew through the halls. Hot and uncomfortable. It assaulted her senses making her queasy. Hilde remained unmoving, waiting.

If the Destroyer had taught her something vital for this occasion then it would be patience. Patience, which she found ran out faster than water poured into a sieve.

Finally, she stepped away from the door and further into the halls. Doors littered the hall from beginning to end. Rotten, falling clumps of wood that offered no true obstacle against a kick.

Hilde moved to the first door. And for some reason, one she couldn't discern her hand raised and she dumbly knocked.

In her head, it felt just right. It looked like a room after all.

Whatever it was that lay in the tower stirred.

The system was right but also wrong. Hell wasn't a place. But right now, Hilde was sure she'd been spawned in the floors of one such hell.

The doors all opened. Every door in that hallway creaked open at the same time. Like a choreographed scene. Smoke oozed out the floors of the doors like a bad horror setting.

Out the poured, like sands fleeing from the spaces within a man's fingers.

Hilde took one step back eyes wide before she recovered from the initial panic of the huge crowd. Will flooded her cloak erasing her presence but leaving a shaky mirage of her due to the lack of shadows.

Then Harbinger dissipated and in its place, two wolf fangs appeared. Void chaos dagger in each hand, legs bent both hands raised like a boxer right before she dove into the deluge of burning skeletons.

The wisps of golden tongues that were flames gave their black skulls an eerie look as each tongue of fire shivered within each of their hollowed eye sockets. Their swords and for some spears and shields glowed and gleamed with a fervent red heat.

Hilde met the first one with a spartan kick that sent it down and floored the greater number. Like dominoes. Her gauntlets jammed into one's shield, her left hand hooking the bronze gear and pulling it forward to her. The skeleton lost its balance falling forward. The right hand with the dagger tightly held shot up a crack resounding as its fang slinked into the illuminated eye sockets.

Blood didn't flow. Skeletons did not bleed after all. No. Their divine fires, burning their existence into reality fizzled and faded even as the first of her battle prompt appeared.

[You have slain a Gurser - Flame bearer]

[You have gained a Shard of minor divine fire]

[+2 ORP]

Where was the exp, where was it? Hide wasn't given a chance to reason properly as her mind went full combat mode. Her eyes saw the movements of the Gursers and she intercepted. Her body narrowly ducked between the folds of their strikes.

Their blades or spears cut into one another. Whether the friendly fire was keeping them from harming the other or not, she didn't care.

Void chaos daggers drilled more holes into their bony weakness. Hilde went for critical hits aiming to shorten the amount of time needed to kill as the numbers were too overwhelming for her.

A strike to the neck, a sweep of their feet to topple and stall the horde. More strikes to their necks or eyes that lovingly cracked their skulls.

She was piling damage with the daggers like goblin hunting season.

A sword slash to her calf brought a wince before a sigh as the healing touch of divine purity caressed the sliced flesh.

Necks, eyes, side of the head, and spine. Hilde inflicted 150 damage to all these areas plus the additional critical. Chaos damage finished the work sending the Gursers down as piles of smoldering bones.

Her feet stomped on bony legs, her fists punching when she couldn't stab. The tower proved to be made from the earth as it rolled to her call each one shrouded in a green glow that symbolized her will and insight. The entire floor kept peeling away like tiles beneath the enemy's feet and severely unbalanced them.

A cold tug in her head was the first warning that she got telling her that she was overstraining her will. Hilde mentally noted it but regardless continued to use the earth.

Walls jutted up as barriers around her cutting off groups of the Gursers from the rest. A swift slaughter followed as the chimes of kill notifications flooded her head.

The walls would come down only for her to segregate the next group and continue. The halls slowly piled with bones even as she fought.

Her feet stepped off the wall to her left, her body coiling like a spring right before she kicked off. The wall cracked and she shot to the angle she desired straight for another group. Like a bowling pin, she crashed right into them.

The wolf fang buried itself into the eyes of yet another Gurser, Nothingness Eruption erasing the skull. A tingle in her left eye froze her abruptly. Leaping back immediately she tripped.

She hit the floor and rolled back just to see a new Gurser wielding a two-handed axe in hand and red fire burning on it cut through the spot she'd just abandoned.

Unlike the others, this one had a leather piece on and a helmet over its burning skull.

The stampede of the bony feet around her made her realize how disadvantageous this new Gurser made her situation. She couldn't fight it while destroying the rest. Hilde was cautious about it. After all, she had felt its danger.

Though she honestly didn't rate it anywhere close to the destroyer it was still strong.

The void dagger dissipated into her inventory her hand taking the chakram off her belt. With a click, the ring of blades separated into two. Each a crescent moon of the other with the handle now thinner than before joined at its center. Nothingness coated their blades swiftly.

The rushing Gursers didn't know what hit them when the two blades were tossed in opposite directions of the other.

The clang of steel hitting stone and the erased parts of contact, as it bounced off the walls was a clue to what was coming even before it severed a head or split an arm.

The Gurser with an axe raised charged her its jaw open in a silent roar. One Hilde met with a cry, powerful and sweeping through the halls and past. The collision was unavoidable.

A shockwave spread as Creator met Gurser in a primal exchange of axe and gauntlet. One striking hard with fury and the other redirecting the blow of the axe blade to glance off her gauntlet. The shockwave came from the flow of divine purity into her fists right to the knuckles and out just as she dealt a strike to its chest. The pure force of strength and divinity drove the skeleton, its bones disassembled and flames snuffed out back and scattering all over the room.

[Skill Learned - Divine Fist]

[You have slain Gurser - Flame enhanced]

[You have gained a shard of lesser divine fire]

[+ 8 ORP]

"This would go a lot faster if I remember to use abilities". She frowned. Hildelith knew she'd been creating more times than she'd been fighting. She was less used and less trained in the combat of Creation Online than she'd want to admit.

Her powers had gotten her far when she remembered but when she didn't. She let herself fight like a brute. Hildelith knew she had to remember that she was a Creator. While it was easy for her to use one or two abilities here and there she had a ton and all of them could create a combo of lethality that would have ended this fight before it even began.

"I even used something cool when making Glacius". Yet the moment there was a fight she forgot most of her abilities. She knew she needed to change that.