The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 29: Iscariot

While Cael was surveying the wreckage around the town, he saw that members of the [Janissary] Guild had stirred earlier than most. Their leader, an Arch-Knight named [Ashken], was walking with a small group of members near the borders of Kruxol. Cael was surprised that Ashken was only level 39, smaller than most of his Guild's powerful players. Still, along with the Guild leaders who are the strongest Guild members, games often had a few Guilds where the powerful players, rather than vying for the leadership, pawned it off to a weaker Guildmate who was seen as agreeable by most members. Ashken still seemed keen to project an aura of authority, wearing a small gold medallion granted only to Guild leaders, and Cael saw that Ashken was handling most of the arrangements for the upcoming Kaxil journey personally.

Cael walked innocuously up to the small group, and asked politely, with a slight accent, "Hello, you are the Guild who is leading the journey to Kaxil? That's an impressive sight."

"Yes," said Ashken, "we are trying to plan it carefully. We do it to help give players hope, after the draugr flood."

This Guild took itself rather seriously.

"That's great. I don't have a Guild, so walking between towns is very dangerous for me. I came with a few friends, but they just got killed by some other Guild who aren't like yours, I forget the name. To help the draugr and fight players, how shameful."

"Oh, that must have been the Hashin. They were reported to be nearby. They are terrible, antithetical to everything we stand for."

"I'm glad that someone is taking a stand. Your Guild sounds like a great thing, do you have any free space?"

"Ah, yes," said Ashken, "but sadly the game doesn't let Guilds recruit new members. Tell you what, sign your name here and we will offer you an invite as soon as possible."

Another player next to Ashken, named [Gre], offered Kruxol a brief form pledging allegiance to the [Janissary] Guild. Cael signed it under the pseudonym 'Iskaret.'

"By the way," started Cael, "I saw a few players with the Hashin tag walking around, could they not attack people who want to join expedition? That would get in the way."

"We are keeping a close look-out for the Hashin. Please report them to us if you see them, if possible I will deal with them personally. Make sure to notice their location and level. They are our Guild's enemies, and therefore I take responsibility for fighting them," replied Ashken.

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"Sure thing," said Cael, and smiled.

Walking towards the Weaponry Store, he saw that Vladislav was busy browsing the store's smaller selection. He assumed that the Assassin would step out after checking on the store. Cael used [Minor Illusion] to conjure a small piece of paper on a rack that Vladislav was inspecting, with small written text on the paper saying, "Follow Janissary if you see them nearby."

Cael then walked back slowly to the Janissary Guild group, who were still walking slowly around the border of Kruxol.

"Hi. You said to report Hashin sightings. I just saw level 31 Hashin alone in the alleys next to the Weaponry Store, he seemed to be pursuing another player," said Cael dutifully.

Ashken smiled, taking this as a chance to stamp his authority on the Guild. "I will go and see, if I find the player then they will die by my hands," said the Janissary leader, setting off towards the Weaponry Store and motioning Cael to follow him.

Cael followed dutifully after, and saw Ashken walk carefully into the alleys near the store, followed by Vladislav who had entered the Weaponry Store wall.

In order to take Ashken off his guard, Cael used [Minor Illusion] once more, conjuring a medallion on the ground like the one that Ashken was wearing. Ashken, assuming for a moment that the medallion had fallen, began to bend down to pick it up. Vladislav leapt out of the wall and used [Chokehold], seeking to force Ashken down to the ground for an easy kill. However, Ashken had much more Strength, and was refusing to budge. Cael quickly activated the [Hierophant Card] and grabbed Ashken's legs in Cael's right arm to lift them over the ground, causing the Arch-Knight to gurgle loudly and as if he was being hanged, due to being suspended in Vladislav's chokehold. The Knight collapsed to the ground once Cael let go. Vladislav capitalised on this with [Black Spot], slitting Ashken's strained throat and causing blood to flow out freely.

Vladislav then held Ashken down with [Suppression], grabbing Ashken by the shoulder and easily flattening the Arch-Knight's face against the dirt. Ashken by now had only 15% HP.

"When you die, you will die in real life," said Vladislav, "but holding you for ransom would be much more profitable for us Hashin, since you are a Guild leader. So please answer these questions honestly. Firstly, how did you survive the draugr invasion?"

Vladislav had no intention of holding Ashken hostage, and was just playing with the Arch-Knight's sense of self-importance.

"I can tell you," said Ashken, realising that it might be his only way out, "There was a GM named FGRT, one of the only GMs still in here. He said that GMs don't have many powers, but he was able to..."

Ashken took a short break to vomit blood.

"He said he had access to some features that were being tested, like Guild embassies in towns. That's like a Guild base, but it's for recruiting players and stuff. He conjured one up for us, hidden in a corner of Kruxol, and said that we could hide there because the game didn't yet count it as a building or something. But only members of our Guild could stay there for the whole invasion, and it only had space for 15 people because he didn't have gold or space for bigger. Some of the 15 were forced out into the fight, it said they had spent lots of time in Kruxol so now they were part of its reserve army."

"I see. Thank you for the long answer. Did he also tell you to lead an expedition to Kaxil?"

"Yeah, he said that would be automatic next capital, and he was impressed with our Guild! I was very proud."

"Do the other GMs also support this?"

"Yes, they said they like my Guild because we get along well and there are less big egos. So they want us to take responsibility for the rest of the players. They already convinced a few powerful players to join us, but I am a good leader and we will bring order to this world!"

"That was the final question. Now get up, I will take you to meet the rest of the Hashin."

Cael was getting slightly worried that Vladislav might actually be serious about taking Ashken hostage, so he quickly used [Minor Illusion] to conjure a piece of paper that read, "The Hashin are terrible, antithetical to everything we stand for." The Hashin had a reputation for killing the saintly.

Smiling at this cue, Vladislav used a sharp [Ripper] on the rising Ashken, then used [Forceful Kick] to shove Ashken to the ground next to the illusory piece of paper.

Cael joined in with a [Spark], drowning out Ashken's dying scream and causing the warrior to die a limp death.

Vladislav walked back, "Thank you for delivering fresh meat. I was always going to kill him, by the way, having such a noisy upstart as a hostage would be a pain. Besides, hostages aren't as much fun."

"Fresh meat? I brought him here to kill you, I said that there was some level 31 noob Hashin loitering here and he duly obliged. I feel really let down by him," said Cael, laughing.

"Ah ha. Good call. Anyway, I think there was one type of card that I didn't mention earlier, it was called [The Tower]. It allows people to transform into a creature named [Beast], converting their strongest stat to Strength and increasing their Constitution. It can only use physical attacks. The reverse side is that the player dies in order to turn the rest of his party into [Beast]. It's a strange card, for most players it wouldn't be advantageous."

"It could be useful, if a Mage needed a strong physical strike at short notice for instance."

"Perhaps, you would know that. For Assassins, it doesn't seem like a good choice."

"It is a strange lottery reward, you wouldn't want to be the person who drew it. But obviously these cards can be gifted, so they won't all be as powerful as they could be. By the way, it sounds like the GMs are trying to astroturf some Guilds to the top, strange."

"Yes. I had my suspicions, so did Drifter. There are only a few GMs here, moderately powerful but we have killed one. I think three remain. GMs were having a meeting when the game bugged out, most of them didn't enter. Besides, GMs don't tend to play games any more, they are mostly just corporate staff. Cheaper than hiring players to do it, nowadays."

"I think that's the way it should be. Janitors are janitors, and gamers are gamers. Very different things to do," said Cael semi-seriously.

"You jest, but that's not false. Anyway, GMs have their names exposed by default, they can die for now. Drifter watched them carefully to figure out what additional features GMs have access to, and while they are powerful it's not something we can't kill. GM in-game powers in immersive games were limited after several high-profile cases of abuse, which gave game companies the excuse to jettison most player GMs in favour of customer support suits. But we should deal with Kruxol Arena first."

"By the way, I've never fought in the Arenas, what's it like?"

"A pain," laughed Vladislav, "it is a much different meta to the normal PvP, most Assassin moves are much less useful or are banned. Plus the fights were usually not to the death, only until one side was reduced to 1/3 HP. Nowadays, since the bug, all fights are without death. Hashin rarely enter, but we can do decently well because we are good at crafting weapons. But if you aren't a Mage who throws out strong attacks to start, or a warrior with a big sword and agility, then you aren't probably getting a top five finish. In real PvP, emphasis is on stun, surprise, and stealth, here since it's not to the death and very little stealth is possible, just powerful attacks are important."

"I see. I'm surprised that they keep it going, since people can feel pain now."

"The banlist of moves grows longer."

"I was thinking, if you use a [Light Sword], then probably less moves are banned than with dagger?"

"Yes. Light Sword is better for Arena."

"I see. I was going to train that. The quest log says to join an Arena, with high EXP rewards, so I might as well try the next Kruxol one."

"I am already entered, but good luck finding a team. Many people are still looking for a team to enter the event. Right now, we are just entering so that we can torment our target and force him to surrender, since as just audience we could only access the Arena stands which are a safe zone."

"Will the Arena move to Kaxil after this?"

"Yes, probably."

"Alright. I guess I'll try this out if I can find a team."

"There's a few other events scheduled at around this time. However, it's really artificial PvP, so don't take it too seriously. You saw how even strong Arena fighters died easily and cluelessly in the draugr event. This is the problem with fair, organised PvP fights: you don't learn how to actually fight battles."