“Assemble, my legates!” the Nucleus declared. “You are all here to determine who among you will be Supreme Legate and…”
Legates? Turning my head, I saw eight other sentients—like me, rotting dead men, but shrouded in expensive equipment… Players! They were all players who had become legates of the Destroying Plague.
The thought was such a shock that I didn’t focus my eyes right away. When I looked more closely at the newly-minted legates, I swore mentally. Criterror, Laneiran, Biancanova, Ronan, Cray, Angel, Mogwai… and that damn Liam himself, Tissa’s new boyfriend. All from the Elites.
This shitty day didn’t look shitty enough to someone upstairs, so they threw more down. It seemed the Alliance had decided not to change factions. Only Mogwai and his clan had. The Nucleus had chosen the eight strongest from among them. And I was the ninth.
“…send you on a mission in the name of the Destroying Plague,” the Nucleus continued while I watched the smirking new legates from under my brows. “Legate Scyth. Do you have something to say? Speak!”
“I am Supreme Legate, ruler.”
“You were Supreme Legate, until the others came to be. You made many mistakes. I strip you of this title.”
The Elites exchanged whispers, but Mogwai called them to order, his devoted stare fixed on the Nucleus. They were playing their roles. They’d gloat about it when the ‘ruler’ wasn’t there.
Destroying Plague quest More Legates! failed!
You failed to identify the g strongest sentients of Disgardium and turn them undead.
You have lost your rank of Supreme Legate of the Destroying Plague!
Your reputation with the Destroying Plague has reduced: -2500.
Current reputation: mistrust.
Skill lost: Call of the Supreme Legate!
Skill lost: Plague Dust!
“The Supreme Legate shall be Mogwai,” the Nucleus announced. “Above you, on the surface, lies the city of Viderlich, your new home. I task the Supreme Legate with the duty of spreading the Destroying Plague to strong sentients willing to settle in Viderlich—our first city, but not last. The portal in the Stronghold built in the desert must be redirected to Viderlich. A separate task for the lesser legates: find laborers. The city must become the most magnificent capital of Disgardium. Its streets shall be decorated with the skulls of gods who, in their blind vainglory, rejected the Destroying Plague!”
More Workers!
Viderlich, capital of the Destroying Plague, needs skilled sentients. Identify 999 of them and turn them undead. The Return Stone that they will receive will allow them to move to Viderlich.
Rewards:
—
30 billion experience
—
+500 reputation with Destroying Plague faction
This was the end. I didn’t plan on completing that quest, or staying in the Destroying Plague. The Nucleus continued to pontificate about his omnipotence and his future faction. In the meantime, I walked up to the reservoir of matter—the blood of the Destroying Plague, his life energy gathered from all over Disgardium,—and jumped in. I don’t know why the Nucleus didn’t react, and I didn’t really care.
Swimming hard, I reached the spot where a possessed Scyth once threw the ColdBlooded Punisher set, and dove down.
Seeing nothing, I kicked further down until I reached the sticky and sucking bottom. I fully immersed myself in the plague moss and reached stone. Slime and muck filled my mouth and nose, blinded my eyes, but I still managed to feel out the metal disk of the armor and throw it into my inventory an instant before tar-black tendrils wrapped around me and dragged me to the surface.
No one remained in the Nucleus’s lair saved the ‘ruler’ himself.
“You are free to go, Legate. Do what I have asked of you.”
“Yes, ruler,” I answered.
I ran to the portal. The thought that it led to Kharinza burned me inside. After all, eight of the strongest players from the Elites had just walked through it.
Chapter 16: Become a Man
THE SUN BLINDED ME when I emerged from the portal. My undead vision adapted at once. The picture darkened, lowering the brightness as if a light filter had been placed over my eyes. It seemed the portal from the Nucleus’s lair led now not to Kharinza, but to the Stronghold of the Destroying Plague in the Lakharian Desert. The ziggurats erected by Shazz towered at either side, spreading the energies of death.
They were waiting for me—the eight sentients stood up to their ankles in sticky bubbling slime. Previously of various races, now they were all undead.
The eight legates from the Elites formed a semicircle, covering my escape routes. Their poses were relaxed enough, with smiles fixed on their faces. The three elven girls, Laneiran, Biancanova and Angel, had kept their good looks. That would change when the rot came. Overall, for players a hundred and fifty levels beneath me, they were behaving pretty confidently, even if they didn’t want to risk coming too close…
A chuckle and a quiet order interrupted my thoughts:
“Get him!”
An arrow suddenly whistled in from one side. It hit me in the shoulder, clattered away uselessly. Equanimity didn’t proc—I just didn’t take any damage. It was the same for all the other attacking skills. It made sense; the Destroying Plague was a single entity, so the members of its faction couldn’t deal damage to each other. It was the most cohesive faction, and that was its strength…
I shaded my eyes and waited out the barrage of magic attacks coming in from all sides. A two-headed bird flew in and tried to peck out my eyes. Even Mogwai kept at a distance, not daring to approach, showering me with swarms of angry Burning Wasps. Using gaps in my rotten flesh, the insects practically made a nest inside me, but I didn’t bat an eyelid. After everything I’d been through, a few minutes under fire from the eight legates felt like nothing.
It was harder to decide what to do next. Put Sleeping Vindication into play, or keep my cards hidden? I needed information, after all. Were the Elites controlling their characters? Had they become Threats? Big Po and I
