The Devil In White: An AA Online Novel

"Are you seeing this?"

Abhy was bouncing from terminal to terminal, watching the producers who were frantically trying to clean up the audio. The dragon, when it spoke, was giving them terrible feedback because it was simply too loud for the processors to handle and convert to the format they were using for streaming. After tonight, there would be a serious re-evaluation of the software they were using to do the audio transitions and editing.

Audrey skidded into the doorway, somehow managing to yell over the din. "Coulsin rating is 70%!"

The room stilled, and people even managed to tear their gazes away from the main monitor as the dragon and the visage lord clashed. The Coulsin rating was a new rating that had been instituted in the early 2150's. It tracked all events of similarity online and reported on audience by percentage. 70% meant that nearly 3/4ths of the viewers who were following the battle online were watching MKC Online's stream.

"Music! I want an epic battle rock added to this fight! Increase voice audio enough decibels higher so we can hear them talk over the music! Someone figure out how to tone down the dragon! Or make him sound even crazier, I don't care which!" Elias cried. People started to run to stations frantically, they only had 10 minutes of delay and the sooner they made the additions the sooner the viewers would get the changes.

Hunter looked up, pulled from shooting arrows, and watched in awe as a great gout of fire exploded out the top side of the mountain. She knew from her party channel that the others were saying that Gilduirn had been killed. The grim reports from the surviving members of Ominous had reported that the entire raid team had been wiped out.

Amelia, amazingly, stayed lit and at 100% health in her party pane. She had been meaning to find a moment to see what was going on up there but there very few such moments to spare. The visage were endless, and even leveling up as they went the defenders were slowly being whittled down. The first Residents had fallen some minutes before. It had been heartbreaking.

Forsythe had noticed as well. "Amelia," he began over the party channel. "It appears that there is some sort of event going on up there. Do you require assistance?"

"No. Don't bother me. Keristrazly is fighting." Came the terse reply.

"...Don't bother me?" Forsythe's face was the very picture next to the definition of surprise.

"Keristrazly?" Khiafin wondered aloud, obviously thinking what everyone else was.

Who was Keristrazly?

"Futility!" Mourning raged. Despite his vocal outburst, he was running as fast he could. Looking like a monk in a habit trying to flee from a truly nightmarish creature that was chasing him. He cast the dark lightning again, not bothering to incant. He had determined that his full power wasn't needed to defeat the Dragon that was chasing after him like a cat. In other games, dragons and other large type creatures stood at a small distance away and struck with attacks like claws, tail, biting, and wings. AA was different.

The entire body could be a weapon, and Keristrazly proved it every time he got close by pouncing forward with every intention of pinning and peeling Mourning like a gr.a.p.e to be eaten. Stone peeled away from the ground as his great claws rent, fractures in the stone of the ground appeared when he tried to jump onto Mourning, even when he took powerful empty bites toward Mourning there were large clacking noises as his teeth met each other. Despite the damage he was taking Keristrazly was single-minded in his giant pursuit of the tiny human necromancer.

"Agreed! Just let me eat you!" The Dragon raged. Amelia was starting to get worried. Thus far Keristarzly hadn't managed to land blows on the enemy, and his health was dipping toward 70%. Her gamble may have been for nothing. Worse, when Mourning was using wordless casting she couldn't get a handle on the spells he was using. There was no way to predict what he was casting and when, let alone whether or not she could counter or reflect them. She couldn't just start guessing either because thus far Mourning was unaware of her abilities. She felt herself becoming impatient and started to look around for other avenues of contributing.

Wait.

Imaginary Forsythe whispered to her quietly.

The dragon does not look afraid. Not yet. Not now. Wait. Wait.

Keristrazly came to a halt and weathered a large barrage of lightning. Then incredibly he began to laugh. "Hahaha, I have enjoyed this. I think it is time to end this though, don't you?"

"Surrender then! I shall make a dragon in your image, but without your awful attitude." Mourning sniped.

"No." The Dragon bunched in on himself and stood staring at Mourning. "I am not a stone imitation. I am the true, the one, the only Keristrazly, Red Dragon, Terror of the Far North. I was merely sleeping. It was my last life cycle you see. The life cycle of a dragon. I was woken early to be sure, but with this… spell this woman has cast. You have already signed yourself to death. [Draconic Evolution]."

Amelia took a step back in surprise. She had been using the back of the dragon largely as a shield to keep Mourning's eyes off her. Now though Keristrazly seemed to be expanding toward her. His scales ripped and peeled revealing darker red scales beneath them, his talons extended far past their original shape, and his large domed head grew by a magnitude that seemed impossible.

Amelia stood dumbly as several of the scales nearby that had fallen off his body clanged and struck the ground like they were made of the purest steel. They sank into soft spots where the heat had made the frozen ground turn into mud. She reached down experimentally and tried to pick one up, marveling when it required both hands to lift one up the size of a dinner plate.

Keristrazly was molting his old skin and seemed to be growing in size. When she had transformed him she had not been creating an imitation of the dragon. This was never a sculpture. She had simply woken up a dragon that was in the process of aging. With her Aura it seemed he had the stats to make his evolution and had been baiting and toying with Mourning for the sheer thrill of it.

"This isn't a game! My friends are fighting down there!" She yelled at him crossly. "Hurry up and kill him!" Amelia could almost have died the moment she realized what she said. She had just told a Dragon in a game that this wasn't a game.

"Apologies friend. Let us rid the world of a blight." Keristrazly took a terrifying step and then another. The plateau had been enormous before, but now it seemed much smaller since the highest class of dragon had decided to make it his battlefield. Each step he took as he set himself fractured the stone ground under his feet. He was suddenly too heavy for the granite or the regular stone under his feet to hold. He took a deep breath, held it, and then blew fire that melted and burned everything that wasn't stone. Weapons, armor, and even the charred remains of the visage he had first incinerated vaporized in their entirety. The stone glowed red seconds after it passed.

Mourning's face was a picture of surprise and shock as he threw his arms over himself and cast. "[Final Form - Flame Resistance]!" He disappeared into the red glow as the flame billowed forth and over the mountain once again into the night sky. Amelia had half thought that maybe he was gone. He had simply evaporated from the heat of the attack. Keristrazly didn't actually stop though. The fire continued for an unquestionably long amount of time. Amelia half expected the quest update to appear while he was still blowing fire.

Yet when he stopped and the flame finally dissipated minutes later, the necromancer remained. Mourning stood charred, standing on glowing stone, his eyes burning with unquenchable hatred. His staff rattled against the stone at his feet, he was shaking with rage.

He didn't move fast enough. Already there was a dragon springing forward. Keristrazly twisted, turning his back on Mourning. Seconds later his tail whipped around, already the size of small redwood trees, smacking Mourning with deadly force. The Visage Lord hit the wall overlooking an edge of the mountain with a sickening crack. The stone actually compacted around him. 85%, Amelia thought, when she finally managed to see him clearly enough to discern his health bar.

Mourning started to get his breath to cast something but it was too late. Already a huge claw was pressing him against the mountain. Keristrazly stood face to face with him, snarling and roaring, and then he stopped and took a mighty breath once more. An exaggerated inhalation where the great lungs of a dragon were filled to near bursting. The flame that poured out from his mouth less than meters away completely covered Mourning and Keristarzly's claw that held him. Amelia started to think this battle might truly be over.

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"There's that!" Abhy cried at seeing the attack. "Get your over-priced souvenirs on your way down the mountain, thank you for coming up!"

"This isn't a game! My friends are dying down there!" Phillip called out in mock hysteria, mimicking Amelia, and then laughed. "Hahaha."

Cheers erupted at the heart of MKC Online. Amelia's view was completely covered in red-fire. There was no way to see what had actually happened to the Visage Lord, but there was also no way that he could have survived a point-blank dragon breath.

"Seems like we can keep our jobs," Edwards said jovially.

"Wait." Elias cautioned. He had not torn his eyes away from the screen. In fact, he was a little concerned. "That first breath didn't do much. Wait. Keep Amelia's stream up and keep playing the music."

Amelia was horrified. There were no words for the image that presented itself before her. Mourning was only at 76% health after that devastating blow. Even the dragon peered down at him with interest. Keristrazly had obviously not planned what to do next, and was caught for a moment simply staring.

Mourning wasted no time and with the free arm, he had reached out with his bladed staff and touched the great hand that covered almost his entire body. "[Necromancy - Necrotic Strike]."

Keristrazly howled in sudden pain and dropped his taloned arm away, limping on three legs and nursing the fourth as he backed away. The dragon growled low in his throat. "What have you become Mourning? Is a monster the only path you see?"

"Coming from you, dragon, I find that rather insulting." Mourning picked himself up and sighed. "I agree though. This has dragged on long enough. I have respected your resolve, and perhaps been a bit deceptive about your chances."

Wait. Imaginary Forsythe cautioned Amelia again.

"I was waiting, too." Mourning continued. "I can only use this spell so often you know?"

WAIT. Imaginary Forsythe spoke to her again, she could almost feel his hand on her shoulder holding her back and keeping her steady.

Amelia readied herself. In the beginning, when she had climbed the slope with Ominous, Gilduirn had been the first to die. She initially had thought that Mourning wouldn't reveal his true power right away. Most raid bosses began showing their true power only when their health was peeled away in layers at certain percentages. Now she knew that he had been testing that first group by using his most powerful spell in a way that had been casual.

It had been casual because he hadn't wanted them to understand his deception. It might be the spell he was preparing to use now. She knew it was an incredibly powerful spell because Gilduirn had simply died by having his shield touched.

Keristrazly certainly seemed to think something terrible was coming. He had lowered himself and seemed to be covering his body with his wings. Whatever he predicted was coming was terrible enough that he was considering sacrificing his wings in order to live.

Mourning pointed his staff at Keristrazly and smiled. "You have no idea of the opportunity you have squandered." He waved his staff at Amelia. "Or you, do you? If you had been willing some semblance of your spirit would have remained. What masterful and powerful allies you would have been. Don't worry. I will still use you to save the world."

He has talked long enough. I think it is now. Imaginary Forsythe commented.

Seriously shut that guy up already. No one likes boring dialog. Imaginary Raven insisted.

Just do what you can do. Imaginary Aidan advised.