Chapter 239: Those Hiding in the Shadows
While the march of the undead is underway, a certain individual is finding a clue towards one of his most difficult quest. Eldritch no longer trusts the Arch Lich Malus to honor its deal with him to tell the location where the Lich King is sealed.
Eldritch knows that Pandemonium is different from other games because in a sense he is cheated by some of the NPCs when it comes to rewards. Though the problem with his quests is that some of the quests came from shady NPCs that a normal player would not trust. He even swindled some of the mild NPCs giving him the title of Hoodlum.
Eldritch is basically the player that you would not hang out with unless you have mastered his personality. The funniest thing is that this player has gotten himself a good number of following because of how great he is in the game.
He basically garnered both praise and admiration from players who like the wild plays he makes. He even has a fan club full of girls because of his bad boy antics. He became a guest at some talk shows in his country and people are shocked at his duality.
He is praised to be well mannered and prim when in reality while he is brazen and vicious when it comes to Pandemonium. He basically has the ultimate duality that a perfect mastermind or supervillain has. He has a good following of girls because of this plus his face is not bad to look at.
Eldritch came into the spotlight when he basically faced off a guild on his own when he encountered them on his mission. He showed his prowess on how to handle large scale warfare and he took down the guild singlehandedly using his wit and skills.
Eldritch had other leads on finding the location where the Lich King is sealed. He needed to find traces of the records where the battle of the dark gods. He needed to find where the last stand of the Lich King took place in order to minimize the area where he needed to search.
Fortunately, he found such traces in a book hidden in a forgotten cave that is hidden in the temple of bones. Eldritch used his powers to control a lich that Malus trusted in order to get access to certain parts of the bone temple. He perfectly observed this lich until he could replicate its movements using his mind.
Even the Arch Lich Malus did not find anything strange or rather Eldritch mastered the Arch Lich' personality. The Arch Lich Malus is more of a control freak that it would use compulsion so that its orders would be absolute. The Arch Lich could care less for other things about its subordinates as long as his orders are absolute and he could compel them.
Eldritch used the Arch Lich' personality to find records of the Lich King in the temple. The records indicated that the Lich King is sealed in a place that is called the Slumbering Prairie. The place is said to be filled with all kinds of flowers that is said to be the seal that the servants Goddess of Life used.
Upon learning of the place, Eldritch immediately used the map to find the said location but only to find that the place no longer exists. Eldritch could make sense why the location is not in the maps as it would be purposely erased so that the location will be long forgotten like the tomb of the dark god he found.
Still, Eldritch started finding the traces of the possible location as it would do him no good to just wait. The lich he controlled is no longer in his service as he relinquished his control once he found what he needed. He did not kill the lich because that would make the Arch Lich Malus more suspicious of the lich. The good thing is that the lich does not remember being taken over by Eldritch.
Eldritch is not the only one making things worse for everyone in the world of Pandemonium. Another group far more sinister than one man is moving once more. The faceless ones are now making their move since the whole world is focused on the undead legion marching north.
The Pope of the Church of Light Pristina is now out of Sanctus and now is the perfect time for them to increase the number allies they have that is infiltrating the church. The world will soon fall into even more peril now that the Pope of the Church of Light chose to protect something in a neighboring city.
The world continued to move but not for the benefit of good. The world would soon be covered in darkness but no one knows it or could do anything to stop it.
====
Adrian could not do anything about the ships anymore ever since the marching undead arrived at the fishing town. Even though the top guilds tried desperately, they could not stop the force of the doom knight that targets anyone who has the holy attribute.
The heavy hitters of the top guilds was not able to join immediately because they prepared to battle the marching undead at Abelpoint. They would have marched towards the undead and attacked them but the paladins of the Church of Light stopped anyone from leaving the city of Abelpoint. This caused great distress to the top guilds that wanted to kill the doom knight.
The players left at Seaswirl Port were either those who were already there or those who arrived late and could not add anything to the fight. Adrian could not even destroy the ghost ships fully so he had no choice but to call for Creepysoo to send some reinforcement.
Creepysoo somberly told Adrian that he could not spare any reinforcement right now as he and others are currently fighting other undead. Adrian could only lament right now because he lacks the strength to contend just by himself. This became a turning point for Adrian as he no longer cared for keeping his identity a secret.
"Nether Domain" Adrian stated as his voice echoed throughout the town despite just whispering to himself.
The players fighting the undead and the army of undead that is led by the doom knight suddenly felt something that made their souls shiver. A mist of three colors rolled in that obscured vision of all the entities present in town. The undead who are facing the players suddenly stopped and their bones started shivering.
Even the doom knight who commanded the undead legion felt something he never felt once again when he became an undead. The doom knight could see his armored hand uncontrollably shaking from an emotion that has been foreign to him for a long time. The doom knight could see all the undead it commanded to be frozen in this emotion.
"This is pure terror. I have long forgotten the feeling of this emotion ever since I have ascended to a being that can feel no emotion." The doom knight stated as it looked towards the swirl of mist forming a sphere a few meters away from it.
"Netheros True Form" A voice echoed and all the beings be it undead or players all looked towards the direction of the voice.
The nether mist swirled and Adrian's body became bigger and bigger and a sphere of ten meters of the mist is made. An explosion sounded and Adrian's true form is revealed to everyone present in the location. A towering height of ten meters with wings that of a mixture of a bird and a dragon. Horns that are burning in blue fire.
"Summon Psyche Armament: Sword" Adrian stated and his voice became dark and echoed throughout the battlefield.
"Greater Summon: Sirius"
"Greater Summon: Kanlaon"
"Greater Summon: Saena"
"Greater Summon: Charon"
Four magic circles appeared in the mist and all of Adrian's soulbounds became supersized just like him. It is an unexpected beneficial effect of his Nether Domain which he greatly liked. All his soulbounds can now use Nether Energy to empower their attacks thanks to Adrian's soul being linked to all his soulbounds.
Sirius became a large wolf that is made of nether mist. Kanlaon looked like a godly dragon that is the incarnation of nether energy. Saena became a giant bird that looked like a phoenix made of nether mist. Charon changed the most at it now looks like a wraith that is holding an eerie lamp that is spewing nether mist.
The players in the area beheld the image that they saw and they even thought that the undead brought reinforcements. The players thought they would be defeated for sure because a boss type undead spawned but they were surprised when the wraith undead used an attack and they were not damaged.
Charon used Soul Siphon and got every undead in the vicinity. The cooldown of the life eater's skill became one week due to the sheer number of health it managed to absorb. Charon then distributed his shield to every player in the town which shocked everyone because they thought those ghostly figures as enemies.
Saena flapped her wings and she healed every player in the vicinity. She even enchanted their attacks with nether energy which is lethal to the undead. Adrian used Nether Flicker to attack the doom knight while it was still in shock. Adrian's sudden attack of the doom knight snapped the players from their confusion and someone actually shouted.
"Charge! The ghostly devil is our ally!"
It only took one shout for the tides of battle to turn on the player's side despite being outnumbered. The counterattack of the players started once Adrian revealed his power to the world.