Spiteful Healer

Chapter 87: For Whom the Bell Tolls

Sapphire made her way through the city streets of Arallia to see the looting had already started. Low level bandit players were taking advantage of the lack of guards and breaking into shops and houses of NPCs, ignoring their pleas to stop and simply stealing things from right in front of the NPCs, shoving everything they could in their inventory. Sapphire had half a mind to stop them, but there were just too many of them and she hadn’t any time.

Her path back to the Skyport led her through the city square where most of the chaos and looting was taking place, and it was there that Sapphire spotted Yuki defending her shop from a group of 5 level 30 players.

“Come on, you can’t carry all that stuff with you, give it to us!” A player shouted at Yuki through her glass doors as Sapphire watched.

“I don’t need to carry it in my inventory. The White Flames will win the battle, the island will be safe, and you’ll all be thrown in jail for months for what you are doing.” Yuki shouted back at them angrily.

“Get a grip Yuki, you really think the White Flames and a bunch of bandit guilds are going to stop an abyssal invasion?” One player shouted.

“Forget this, just take her stuff. She’s a tailor class player, she can’t stop us anyway.” One said, and they all chanted in agreement. One player pulled out a maul and smashed through her windows as the others started rushing in, grabbing all the materials and armor that was still on display in the shop that Yuki hadn’t put in her inventory.

“Stop it!” She shouted at them as she pulled a giant iron needle from her inventory, the size of a sword.

“Haha, what are you going to do, sew us to death?” A player mocked her. Sapphire had seen enough and snapped her fingers, whipping a ball of holy flame at one of the players.

“Cowards.” She growled as they all turned to face her.

“We’re cowards? Shit, what's a high level doing here?” The one she'd hit replied.

“Yeah, you should be defending the island with the other high levels. Who are you calling cowards?” Another shouted at Sapphire.

“I’m not from around here.” She replied angrily as she started throwing more holy fire at them. She was dealing a lot of damage, but because the skill wasn’t very high, it wasn’t enough to kill them.

“Psh, shit, heal me up, she’s a weak ass cleric. C’mon!” The players shouted as they began using healing spells on each other. They grabbed a few more items before running off while Sapphire continued to pelt them with flames until they’d run down the street and out of sight.

“Sorry, I’m healing focused. If Herilon was here he would have took ‘em all out.” Sapphire apologized to Yuki as she looked around at the damage done to her shop.

“It’s ok, thanks for helping me.” She smiled at Sapphire. They went awkwardly quiet for a few moments, until the sound of a door being broken down across the town square drew their attention, and they watched as another shop was looted. Sapphire saw Yuki look around her shop dejectectly, quite a few items still on her shelves.

“So your inventory is full?” Sapphire asked.

“Yup.” She shrugged nervously. “This is all I have worked for and built up. Yumily depends on me, so I cannot give up on it so easily.” She sighed.

“Hmm.” Sapphire stepped forward and looked around the shop. “I actually wanted to buy some of your clothing, I love the style. Maybe you could sell some of this stuff to me?” Sapphire asked and Yuki’s face suddenly lit up with joy.

“It’s on sale for anyone who saves my shop!” Yuki cheered excitedly, causing Sapphire to rub her hands together with anticipation. She quickly scoured through the clothes that remained on the shelves and mannequins and went overboard on picking out things she liked. Repeatedly checking her inventory to calculate how much gold she had left to spend. It wasn’t until she got an angry message from Quinn that she snapped out of her shopping frenzy.

“Sapphire, where the hell are you?” Quinn asked.

“I’m coming, I’m coming! There’s no quake yet, right?” Sapphire replied.

“The battle started, I’m watching the livestream on VGN. It’s going badly. I don't think Arallia's going to be here much longer.” Quinn answered.

Sapphire sighed as she read this, closing out her interface to see Yuki as she started sweeping up the broken glass in her shop.

“I’ll take all of this.” Sapphire smiled as she plopped down a tall pile of folded clothes on the counter of the shop, then rummaged through her inventory to pull out all of her gold and handed it to Yuki.

“Thank you very much, I’m sure it will look beautiful on you.” She smiled. Sapphire began piling the clothing into her inventory, but as she did, there was a violent earthquake that shook the land around them for several seconds. It was the fourth quake since the invasion began, meaning only one Island Stone remained. After the quaking stopped, several loud bells began to ring throughout the city of Arallia. Yuki and Sapphire both looked outside and watched as NPCs began to flood out of their homes, screaming in panic as they ran down the streets.

“What’s that mean?” Sapphire turned to see Yuki’s face, tears welling up in her eyes.

“That’s the warning bell that attackers are coming to the city. All the Arallians are supposed to take refuge within the palace.” Yuki said as the first tear rolled down her cheek. She walked out of her shop onto the street to watch the NPCs fleeing - women and children mainly, being guided along by the Arallian guards that had stayed behind to protect the city.

“It doesn’t mean it’s over yet, it just means the abysslings from the other stones are coming. As long as one stone still stands, Arallia should be okay.” Sapphire tried to reassure her, but it didn’t help and Yuki let out a soft whimper. “If you want, you can take your things aboard our Airship, so you don’t lose your stuff.” Sapphire tried to cheer her up.

“It's not the items I'm worried about losing.” Yuki waved at the clothing still remaining in her shop behind her. “We grew up here. Me, Yumily, and all the others, a year ago it was so different, we were all level one. We have so many memories here. I spent so much time with these NPCs…” Yuki watched as a few more ran through the townsquare in the direction of the palace. “If the Island falls, they’re all going to be gone.” She cried as Sapphire tried to comfort her by patting her on the shoulder, though it was obvious Sapphire was uncomfortable with the situation.

“These guys just think of gold, and quests, they don’t care.” She motioned to a group of bandit players looting a shop across the square, ignoring the fleeing NPCs and guards. “But to a lot of us, these are our friends. Yumily’s going to be so sad.” Yuki managed to get out as she wiped her own tears away. “You should go, to your Airship. I’m going to go spend time with my friends.” Yuki said as she pushed Sapphire’s hand away and began walking along in the same direction the NPCs were fleeing, towards the Palace. Sapphire watched as she disappeared into the crowds of NPCs as the only player among them.

“C’mon Sapphire, hustle. In the true spirit of Arallia, the bandit guilds turned on the White Flames and are just trying to steal items from them before the island falls. It’s over.” Quinn messaged Sapphire,

The message popped up in her peripheral vision as she caught the last glimpses of Yuki among the NPCs. Sapphire let out a disappointed huff before taking off towards the Skyport. The guards refused to open the south gate for her, forcing her to hop over the wall with ease and making the final trek to the Skyport outside the city.

“There ye’ are, we were worried we’d have te’ leave yeh.” Tullan joked from the front of the ship as he called down to Sapphire. Sapphire hopped up on board to see Herilon, Ren, Quinn, Leonard, Gregory, and Trexon standing around behind Tullan.

“We’re just missing the young boy now, right?” Gregory asked as he stood by the step ladder, ready to pull it up at a moment's notice while Leonard stood at the helm, they were all looking into the dark desert to the south of the Skyport, an ominous wave of darkness visibly approaching in the distance.

“Yes, I have some of our members watching his stream to keep us updated, they say he’s finishing the quest now.” Quinn replied.

“He’s gonna be confused as all hell, you oughta send him messages to let him know he’s gotta get his ass down here quick.” Herilon said.

“The White Flame’s are still fighting, even though the other guilds are betraying them. They might still have a chance.” Trexon replied as his eyes were glazed over, indicating he was watching a livestream of the battle through his livestream viewer as he spoke.

“Prepare for the worst. Sapphire, buff us up. Everyone, get your good gear on.” Quinn ordered them as she sent a raid party invite to everyone onboard. “We’ll stay as long as we can, but we’re not risking the Sky Darling or our gear just to wait on the kid.” Quinn finished and they all accepted her invite with nods of acknowledgement. After that, it went eerily silent. A light wind whistled through the sails on the Airship and the loud ringing of the bells of Arallia could be heard in the distance, but it was otherwise a dark silent night in the desert. Sapphire looked around to observe the scene until she’d spotted Trexon’s glazed over eyes, and opted to open up her live stream viewer to see what was happening just like he had.

“This is absolutely tragic!” Jasper shouted as he stood a great distance from the battlefield. In front of his broadcast stood two casters inside the Virtual Gaming Network’s studio, a viewership number of now 4million watching him. “As you can see, the priests and soldiers of Arallia have sided with the White Flames. Their main tank and guild leader, Erikson, is heading off what can only be described as an Abyssal Juggernaut leading the charge against the Island Stone.” Jasper shouted as he motioned to a large black skinned creature. It was humanoid in form, but it's left hand was a large black blade and he was the size of a large building. It was the only creature visibly standing above the dark mist, but swarms of reapers could be seen above swooping around in the skies, attacking both NPC and player alike at every opportunity.

Arrows and magic of a great variety flew up at the reapers to stop them from reaching the back lines while Erikson and Josephine stood at the front, Erikson had a shield out and was desperately blocking the attacks of the Abyssal Juggernaut, while the King and Great Prophet of Eirene stood back and aided him with magic and helped defend his flanks from swarms of Ferrawolves and other small abyssal creatures that were scurrying across the desert sands around the Island Stone.

“Only the Juggernaut is powerful enough to destroy the Island Stone. Focus your attacks on him!” Erikson shouted desperately. He was ignoring the fact that half of the players he’d called to help him were instead trying to attack his guild mates and the NPCs assisting them.

“Get off it, you idiot.” A high level bandit player shouted at him.

“Dibs on Erikson’s shield!” Another cheered as they rushed at them, going after any items that were dropped by both fallen White Flames members, and their own fallen bandit guildmates.

“Why are you guys doing this?!” Josephine screamed at them angrily.

“Do you really have to ask? It’s free loot! Look how much gold the king’s crown is probably worth!” One of them pointed out, and as he did, several high level players smirked and rushed at the king. Thiefs, wizards and rangers turned their attacks to the king, ignoring the abyssal creatures swarming around them.

“We’re watching the chaos unfold before our very eyes. The treachery of the bandit guilds is being shown to the world now, I only worry for whichever island these bandit players relocate to once this battle is over.” Jasper commented as he continued to angle himself for the optimal viewership experience.

The Great Prophet and the Eirene priests desperately attempted to position themselves to protect the king, as did the Royal soldiers, but as they focused on this, the reapers who had aggrod onto the healers took this chance to swoop down and strike at them.

“Stop this, it's insane! Are you guys really this evil?” Josephine shouted in disbelief as she jumped forward in front of the King of Arallia with her shield out.

“Relax, it’s just a game.” Another player mocked her as they didn't hold back blasting her with magic. After a few consecutive strikes, she lost too much health to keep blocking attacks for the king, and was taken out of the game.

“JOSEPHINE!” Erikson shouted in anger when he saw her force logged out. “You greedy bastards! UNLIKE YOU, SOME PEOPLE ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT THIS WORLD!” He shouted in a rage. “ABANDON ATTACKS ON THE ABYSSLINGS, FOCUS ON THE BANDITS!” Erikson gave the order to the remaining NPCs and White Flames members. They were angry enough that they followed his orders. The battle to protect Arallia quickly turned into a free for all PvP brawl, of which the abysslings swarmed around them and picked them off.

“Unbelievable, they’re ignoring the elite Juggernaut, and he’s gladly taking advantage of the situation to go after the Island Stone. They’re too busy fighting each other to even stop him!” Jasper pointed excitedly at the Island Stone as the large Abyssal Juggernaut stomped through the allied forces towards the last remaining Island Stone of Arallia. It was clear Erikson didn’t care anymore, he stopped trying to get the bosses attention and instead was prioritizing attacking the players that had struck down Josephine one at a time.

“No! The King! The King of Arallia has fallen!” Jasper shouted anxiously as he watched a high level battlemaster player finish the king and quickly start rummaging around through his things, taking his crown.

“I got it, holy shit it's worth 10 million gold!” The battlemaster player shouted excitedly.

“Quick, log out so you don’t drop it!” One of his guildmates encouraged him.

“Y-yeah, cover me so I can log out!” He said to his guild as they formed a line around him. The Royal guards went into a rage to try and break their defensive lines, but it seemed hopeless, until Erikson and two White Flame Battlemasters joined in and broke through, striking out at the Battlemaster bandit who had stolen the crown. Before they could finish him off though, there was a large ground-shattering earthquake, and all eyes turned to the 5th and final Island Stone as it was smashed into hundreds of pieces by the Abyssal Juggernaut, fragments scattering across the desert around them.

The quake this time was much longer than the others, and with it, there was a shift in gravity around the entire island. The dark mist grew upwards and spread around the battlefield very quickly as the abysslings and reapers swarming around enjoyed the chaos.

“Anger, Fear, Suffering, and…” The Great Prophet of Eirene spoke as he watched the last of the Eirene priests, Royal guards, bandits, and White Flames members get killed by the swarming creatures of the abyss. He hadn't the time to say the last word, as a high level Battlemaster wearing the tabard of the black lion guild jumped towards him and struck him down, killing him instantly. Jasper caught it on his livestream as the player rummaged through the Great Prophet's items and added some to his inventory, but didn't comment on it.

“That is it, the darkness is spreading. Despite the best efforts of the White Flames, they couldn’t overcome the true nature of the bandit guilds of Arallia." Jasper announced as he watched the battlemaster player get swarmed by reapers while he was still looting the Great Prophet. "I think I’m done for, and so is this island. There’s no other players left, so, back to you guys at the desk. Ah shit!” Jasper shouted anxiously as a reaper had spotted him from a distance and began soaring in his direction. “Oho, oh boy, shit shit shit!” Jasper yelled excitedly as the camera focused in on the reaper swooping down on him, catching his last moments before the reaper attacked and killed him.

“Well, there you have it folks.” The camera swapped over to the Virtual Gaming Network studio where two casters, a male and female, were sitting behind a desk. “That was our exclusive live stream coverage of the Defense of Arallia. I hope a lot of lessons can be learned from what went wrong there. As you all know, one of Virtual Gaming Network's very own members, Yumily the Bard, famously had her start in Arallia back in the launch of the game. Yumily -” The caster said as he turned around and a screen behind their desk appeared, displaying Yumily’s livestream behind them as she accepted the interview. The Viewership was now sitting at 11 million for the VGN broadcast as Sapphire watched it.

“What do you have to say to the people of Arallia during this difficult time?” A caster asked her.

“I am disappointed.” She replied with tears in her eyes. Yumily was sitting in a small room by herself wearing a simple white shirt and pants, surrounded by various instruments. She was an elf with long straight black hair and a slender build, but she didnt want to look up towards where her Livestream Camera was. It became awfully apparent that her livestream editor kept manipulating her camera to try and record her crying, while Yumily did her best to avoid being seen by it and kept turning away from wherever the camera was moved.

“And I’m sad I am so far away. I let everyone down, I am sorry to Yuki, and Savika, and everyone in Arallia.” She said. “I don’t want to talk right now, if you could please leave me alone.” She waved the cameras off.

“Yes of course, obviously quite an upsetting event.” One of the casters said as they turned off Yumily’s broadcast. “As the creators of The Shattered World Online have said, they believe that in order for their fantasy world to be truly immersive, the dangers in the world must be real. According to them, the world wouldn’t feel threatening if there were no real threats and urgency. They refuse to go back on their design choices for the abyssal threat despite complaints after the first island falling.”

“Yes, that’s right.” The other caster chimed in. “And now that the second island has fallen, it’s got to have people worried. Just what exactly caused the invasion in Arallia? How safe is Savringard? How safe is Lanusk?” The caster posed the question.

“We have Makaroth standing by to answer exactly that.” He said as a second broadcast appeared behind the casters, and standing there was the high level Makaroth with short black hair, a large muscular build with broad shoulders, and two greatswords crossed on his back. He was sitting in a tavern surrounding by other high level players wearing tabards that matched his own.

“Do you think the people of Savringard should be worried about an abyssal invasion?” The caster asked him.

“No. The Islands of Savringard and Vorel are under my protection, so there’s nothing to worry about. When the Abyssal Invasin comes, me and the Sages of Destiny guild will be ready for them.” Makaroth replied with a proud smile.

“You’re confident you can overcome the Abyssal Juggernauts, even after what we just witnessed?” A caster asked him.

“Of course. Me and my guildmembers are already studying the footage in detail and watching the enemies attack patterns. If those things try to invade my isalnds, we’ll make them look like nothing but another trash mob.” Makaroth said while crossing his arms confidently.

“That’s reassuring. I’m sure anyone who is about to lose their homes in Arallia will be happy to know that they can relocate to Savringard or Vorel and not need to worry about such a tragedy befalling them again.” He spoke as he suddenly had a light blink on his ear and tapped it. “Hold on, we’re just receiving word now, apparently there is one more player streaming within the Island of Arallia. It’s not a member of the VGN so we don’t have rebroadcasting rights, but we’ll be redirecting viewers towards the player for those of you interested in watching the last moments of the island. Apparently, it’s the same player who recently unlocked intermediate in every crafting class.”

“Wasn’t he from Kalmoore?” The other caster asked.

“Yes, curious what a Kalmoore player was doing in Arallia.” The other caster responded.

“If you guys’ll excuse me, I would like to watch as well, to get as much information on these invasions as possible.” Makaroth said as he closed out his broadcast from the casters desk.

“Let’s do the same, let’s turn it over to the livestream of the player Aegis, and his broadcaster Hae-won over at the Fanta-see Network.” The caster said, and a moment later the screen went black, before switching to Aegis as he stood in the Monastery of the Stars main hall, looking around confused and calling out for Clara and Sapphire.

“That idiot.” Sapphire groaned as she closed out her broadcast and sent Aegis an angry message.

“COME ON IDIOT! CHECK YOUR MESSAGES!” - Sapphire