The Devil In White: An AA Online Novel

"So who wants storytime?" Amelia asked. She was pouring over the chalk rubbing that she pulled from the tomb under Brack's castle and had it mostly deciphered. It was one of the easier languages actually. Old and primitive, according to the game, and a precursor to modern language. In AA all the Transients and Residents could understand one another through a universal translator, but that didn't mean each race didn't have its own specific language. "I just pieced it together with one Hunter got me, thank you, Hunter." Amelia nodded. "Also with the one that Forsythe got for me from his mad excursion."

"It had writing on it. Naturally Amelia wanted it." Forsythe stated assuredly.

"Wish you had told me," Hunter griped to Forsythe. "I had to log off and go find the recording of the last room. She's lucky that I looked at it."

"I want a storytime!" Aidan raised his hand, cutting off whatever Amelia was going to say to Forsythe and Hunter regarding their views on her job.

"Alright so if you put them all together they tell the tale of the three heroes and how they sealed the Evil God Void when he threatened the world." Amelia began.

"Mention of Visage?" Aidan wanted to know.

"No they came after, don't interrupt me again." Amelia glared. Aidan held his hands up and sat down obediently to listen.

"Right so this new Evil God, or EG from now on since I'm not saying that every time he comes up, came from another world. I keep hearing from all the NPC's about how there are many worlds, or there were worlds before this one. I always assumed they just meant unexplored continents, but this," Amelia tapped the paper in her l.a.p. "This suggests that they really mean other worlds. So this EG migrates from some world he ruins right? He's bad news. The visage converts the dead for an army but this guy seems to be the antithesis of life. For some reason, his end game is to be the only sentient life left in the universe. He feeds on life but isn't concerned about preserving us as a food source or energy source or a challenge or anything. He just goes, destroys, and moves on."

"Like a really, really big shark." Rat guessed.

"Right, except he's really good at finding all the fish and never gets full." Amelia nodded.

"Shark." Forsythe was looking up, obviously imagining something impossible.

"So the Silf, Human, and Dwarf hero kings and queens band together and hodgepodge these massive armies to fight him." Amelia smiled. "Aided by another god that shows up who is described as luminous and brilliantly golden."

"Vienne." Aidan guessed.

"That's my guess. Anyway, she is no match for him. I mean the whole paper from the Dwarven kingdom is a recounting of a match with him that spanned months where he basically smashed her up, left, right, and down." Amelia then conceded, "it does mention she was weak from her travel from another world. So take that for what it's worth. Also, don't interrupt me. I already told you." She scowled at him and he made a lip-zipping gesture.

"At the end of all three accounts, the world is ruined. I mean the population is so decimated by the time they figure out how to lock him out of this world that most of the people go back to their homelands and spend generations trying to rebuild. So long, in fact, that with the local problems they completely forgot about staying in touch." Amelia tapped her fingers against her leg. "Which explains why all the races are so happy to be back together but there were so many barriers separating them. This is the first time since this war, over a thousand years ago in the game, that all the races have been prosperous and cultured enough to renew old alliances. You can talk now Aidan."

"Hang on. I know I raised my hand, are you calling on me? Right. So when we were… somewhere… you mentioned that this story used to be called the Four Heroes right?" Aidan raised an eyebrow, looking around for a moment wondering if anyone would tell him that he had just imagined it.

"Ah! That's the interesting part. Aside from talking about the EG and giving him a name for the first time, all three accounts leave off with their recollections of the Fourth Hero of the great war, and her race the Halfs." Amelia was starting to smile.

"That smile." Forsythe pointed, and for a moment it faltered on Amelia's face.

"Found something good then?" Aidan asked eagerly.

Ridley had wandered over and started to listen, but didn't seem terribly interested. They were just people to listen to while the boat sailed on day 3 at this point. Yesterday, the day after Raven sang, had been incredibly boring. Other bards had sung across the water and had really helped, but there were only so many renditions of popular songs you could listen to while bobbing up and down on the ocean.

"Yes. Her race bore the brunt of EG's attack and was wiped out near the end of the war. The Half are described as being half the size of the race of men, without the stocky constitution of dwarves." Amelia continued after letting them mull over that. "She was also a direct disciple of Vienne, or the luminous golden one. Despite her size, she is listed as having the highest strength and courage of the three heroes. She befriended a dragon who, according to this legend, laid down with her when she died of her wounds atop a mountain overlooking Blutonsi. She fought a terrible battle trying to fight her way up the mountain to an entryway that led across toward her people. She didn't make it in time, and the agents of the EG, those that thought they could curry favor, were slain by her hand but not before dealing her a mortal wound. That's where it gets sad, really." Amelia sighed.

"Yeah, won the fight lost your race sounds pretty suck to me." Rat agreed.

"Not only that but the three heroes arrived and went onward with her assurance that she would catch up. She died behind them and they didn't find out later until they discovered her leaning against the mountain with her sword. Her friend, the dragon apparently, was wrapped around her in silent and tearful slumber and his tears rained down the mountain and seeped into the land. He never moved from his vigil, and the land was thought to be protected by him in her honor." Amelia sighed again.

Hunter's eyes were wide. "That's terrible. That's a terrible backstory! Who thinks these things up? It's always a dead mother, or a dead hero, or a dead child, or a dead something!"

"Don't go into hysterics, that's Amelia's mother's job." Forsythe comforted her anyway by patting her hand.

"The heroes that lived all agreed then," Amelia said doing a masterful job of ignoring them, "that they would never speak of her because there were none of her children to know of her bravery and such a valiant deed would be tarnished with the sadness of what happened. They thought she would have hated being remembered sadly. Instead, they spread the tale in a way that inspires hope, as just the three triumphant and surviving heroes. Secretly, however, they all expressed how much they regretted that decision at the end of all these stories we've gathered in the new open dungeons."

"Not bad," Aidan said grudgingly. When everyone looked at him he shrugged. "I mean, there is hidden history. Can you imagine what else we'll discover is wrong? The Residents might not know anything about what the game perceives of as AA's actual past." Aidan shook his head. "Though it would have been nice to know more about how the visage lay into this little drama. Vienne alluded that while the visage were not allied with your EG there, by no means were they unrelated. The guy Mourning doesn't appear to be EG either."

"I wouldn't think about it. We won't fight him." Forsythe said, seeming to remind Aidan of something.

"Fight who?" Amelia asked, frowning.

"Raven, Forsythe, and I…" Aidan said slowly. "...are going to leave the last boss of the visage arc to other people. His face looks like a… guy we used to know and we don't really want to have to fight him."

"Ah, sorry mate." Rat said sympathetically, understanding implicitly that this person was dead. "Sounds like a good friend."

"I don't know about that, but he did try to help us. His name was John and he was a big burly guy that smelled like peaches." Aidan made a slight face as if that were really weird before continuing, "he had a stupid face and we weren't even really fond of him but you know, it'd be weird to fight that face in a game especially since he did us a solid." Aidan explained.

Rat nodded and Amelia saw that Ridley was nodding along as well as if that made more sense to them than the usual garbage they were fed by Aidan. Neither of them knew that there were Last Sojourn survivors present. It was small wonder, considering what Raven had named her song. It had seemed a bit in poor taste to Amelia, but then she wasn't an LS survivor so she supposed it didn't matter what she thought. The death game had ended long enough ago that people didn't immediately jump on the two words strung together as taboo.

"I'll go then." Amelia decided, suddenly remembering how confident she felt when they had discussed the possibility of the game generating a face that her friends would recognize. She would take care of it, she said. Now she wasn't too keen on the idea. It was too late to back out now though. Amelia shrugged and convinced herself she was looking forward to seeing his final moments anyway.

For the most part, they were all doing a masterful job of ignoring her declaration with secret smirks on their faces. Before she could lay into them for ruining a heartfelt moment for her-

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Global Announcement - Invasion of the Far North Continent - Super Level 1 Quest (Update)

Defenders have reached the port city of Blutonsi and have elected to speed up their defense.

Start Condition: Today is the day.

Accepted: Gilduirn

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Dead silence on deck, and then everyone began talking at once. For the most part, the general mood was one of absolute disgust. The running theory in Shadow Fall was that Gilduirn was more concerned with having the event to himself than with the result.

Amelia wasn't so convinced. Gilduirn had never been counting on any other forces other than his own from the start. It was likely that he had a sizeable force and had just landed a day before them. Still, Amelia conceded, when you looked out at all the sh.i.p.s that were almost there it was a little disheartening that he didn't just freaking wait. If he had waited one more day they would have started setting up siege walls and other useful things that the Carpenters and builders had planned on making. To Amelia's knowledge, everyone in Ominous was just a fighter or wizard of some flavor or another, even if they were termed professional raiders. They would just stand and meet whatever came.

"Well, we're a bit lucky at any rate," Hunter said grimly, and when Forsythe looked up she explained. "Last time they attacked us at dusk. They are serious trouble in the dark. So if they attack Gilduirn during the day before we get there at least he'll have a slight advantage."

"He might have it all wrapped up." Aidan posited though he didn't sound like he believed it. "Then wouldn't we all look silly in our boats. Just bobbing around."

"Sh.i.p.s." Raven corrected over the channel.

"I think you just death flagged Gilduirn there," Rat pointed out with a wry smile. "Weren't you telling us all yesterday that every time you thought something was over and done with or easy something totally horrible popped right out of it? In fact, I remember agreeing with you and telling you to shut the hell up."

"Oh. Right. In that case, I am sure that Gilduirn has already defeated all his enemies, and is living it up on the beach right now with legions of adoring fans who are telling him how great he is." Aidan smiled evilly, earning stares from everyone.

Before Amelia could reply she received a friend message from Abhy, Elias Thompkins second in command at MKC Online. They had decided that not being able to communicate with Amelia until she was logged off was a huge inconvenience and had requested that she friend Abhy in game so she could get online and message Amelia if they needed to get in touch while she was playing.

"Amelia. Your sh.i.p.s won't reach the shore for another four hours. Will you log off and do an interview?" Abhy cut directly to the chase without any preamble or chitchat.

"Interview? I'm not going to hop on a plane." Amelia said hesitantly.

"No, it'll be voice only. We'll show stills and clips if we need to use video of you, and I will be personally leading the interview so it'll just be me talking to a terminal with your name on it. Most people will just be seeing me and pictures of your adventures on a box nearby. It's a great idea to start generating interest before your live stream starts later tonight. We were going to forgo an interview because Elias didn't think you would do it. Now though, without a few days to really prep the audience, this is an alternative we came up with." Abhy explained. "Will you do it? We won't be paying you, but Elias said to tell you that it might garner attention and support from people and that they might take the Resident threat more seriously."

"Yeah. I suppose. I'm going to disconnect you if you start asking me questions that are troublesome." Amelia warned.

Abhy agreed without laughter, making Amelia a little afraid, and then she turned to her party and announced she would be logging off for a few hours to give an interview on the upcoming conflict for MKC Online.

The general consensus after a quick talk was that it was a great idea, and that while she was doing that she should try to pump Abhy for information on how the fight was going on Gilduirn's end.

"If it comes up," Raven added before Amelia logged out, "remember to talk about my better qualities."