Unknown,

I closed my eyes and held that pike as far forward as I could. Even in the state of low health, I still retained enough strength to fight. I charged at that creature but everything became a blur. I recall almost nothing after picking up Janik's pike. Janik... poor bastard died in the darkness of that hall. I feel like I joined him but even I remain unsure if that is the case. I can't feel anything. I am only my consciousness. I hear faint music, a gentle piano but I see nothing. There is no light but there is also no darkness. There is just nothingness.

My thoughts feel like I'm talking to myself or just to the unending void that is around me. I feel no pain but I also feel no life. The moment I realized I was still conscious, I began to actively think. Am I dead or simply suspended?

I see shapes...

I see silver shapes...

I see silver words instead of shapes...

I see my thoughts?

Am I journaling without my book in hand?

Where am I? What has become of me?

The music still echoes around me from no known source. I see only the words that I am thinking.

I feel numb...

I feel no pain...

I feel nothing...

I see nothing, smell nothing...

Is the afterlife nothing more than unaffected consciousness?

What is death?

What is now?

Wait...

I see spots, blurs of color.

Light is beginning to seep into this void. It's creating light and darkness. I am beginning to see shapes of color. The silver words are fading away...

A faint familiar voice echoed around him. It was male but it didn't seem happy. Rather, it was filled with fear. Feeling, sensations began to return to Tangurple. A wave of pain washed over him, but he didn't flinch. The pain got strong, like a knife through the heart. Then a wave of pleasure and relief followed, whisking away the pain. He was left with just the feeling of normality. Muscle control returned to him but the input, his sight, his ability to hear sound didn't. At least at first.

He moved around, slowly and blindly. The sensations of touch were the first to return to him and as it did, the others came quickly rushing back. The first thing he saw was a gnoll, towering over him in a well-lit room. The gnoll was idle with its eyes closed. Tangurple spoke in a raspy voice, "I ain't dead yet."

Suddenly, Falcher hugged Tangurple tightly. "Damn you," he muttered.

Tangurple replied, "Can't damn a demon."

"Creoft!" Falcher cried out. "He lives!"

"Hallelujah... Holy shit man, I thought we lost another good man." Creoft commented.

"You can't kill me that easily."

"It seems that way."

Falcher let go of Tangurple and pulled him to his feet. Tangurple saw the pike on the floor and picked it up. "Janik?"

"Died gloriously," Creoft said. "Along with two hundred of the finest fighters in the guilds."

"Tullus?"

Tullus responded with a distant grunt.

"What now?"

"You need new gear and some rest. Creoft and I... We... We have to report the damage to the council and the remainder of the guild members. I'm not looking forward to this."

As they left the castle, several loud bell chimes echoed across the lands and the narrator spoke once again. "Attention players. The population count is now under four million players. At this rate, no one will see home again." The narrator's voice then faded away with a chuckle. Creoft stuck his middle finger to the sky for several long minutes.

In Empora, the council was gathered around the circular table once more. Creoft spoke in Tullus' place. "We have returned from Ashua. As you all may now have realized, Janik, Guild master of Flugel Der Freiheit is no longer with us. I can and will explain everything that has happened over the past week..."

At the end of Creoft's long explanation of the events, Elvici sobbed quietly at her loss as Wueben walked over and offered comfort. Tullus sank into his chair seemingly expressionless, his sword fell from his hip and clanked against the floor. The rest of council remained silent, unsure of what to say.

Creoft coughed to regain everyone's attention. "I believe the revelation of the next zone boss is imminent. This attack on a city was not provoked and is a sure sign of this Judas' expansionist thinking. If he hasn't already retreated, we may still have a chance to hunt him down."

Hagtard stood up, "Then let's give this scrawny bastard a good ol' taste of Viking whoop ass! Janik was my friend, my biggest customer, and now a quenched light of hope. If this vampiric boss is true, then let's impale him! Stab him and teabag his ashes!"

Creoft chuckled, "Control yourself Hagtard. We'll fight him soon enough. We still have a loose killer, the Mother of Darkness is still out and about. She may very well try to recover her guild counts. We lost our lead at the city of Jonkas, she may have gone underground and if she has, hopefully, she'll stay underground."

"We'll just stab her too! Maybe club her first and burn her." Hagtard laughed at his newfound excitement. "I wonder if I'm stable..."

"We all do. Anyways, with our numbers having been severely damaged with this attack, it is unlikely we can go after the boss anytime soon..."

The gnoll growled, "what in hell, you can't just go solo the damn boss. You're nuts for thinking so."

Tangurple sheathed his sword and tossed on his newly repaired plated Emporian armor. "I was given a challenge. You know as well as I that Judas has full control over this glitch. You've seen it happen."

"I don't know where you're getting this idea but I will not let you commit suicide by boss fights. You've scraped death's doors enough times in one year alone, I'm not letting you do it again." Falcher stomped over and slammed the door shut on Tangurple.

"Oh for the love of-. Look, I have no other choice, Night is a prisoner to that life-sucking bastard."

"This knowledge is coming from where? Your ass?"

"Personal Encounters. I told you about the glitch that teleported me into his lair."

"I still call bullshit on that, no in-game entity can teleport players at whim outside of combat. Ok, let's hypothesize here. Let's operate under the assumption Judas has Night hostage. What are you gonna do? You're a one-man crew right now, not even a talented DPS. Tanks cannot solo bosses, in any game."

"I have that special anti-vampirism scythe, that'll give me some good DPS."

"Oh right, the farmer's lawnmower is gonna do some serious damage."

"I don't need your sarcasm, dad."

"Did you just call me dad? The hell man, I'm trying to bean some logic into you and you're gonna call me dad?" Falcher scoffed, "Y'know what? Have at it. Go kill Judas. I doubt you'll even make it to the entrance."

"I will just you wait and see."

"I'm not coming to rescue your ass from the snow!"

Tangurple pushed Falcher aside and slammed the door behind him, storming off.

Falcher held his head in his hand, sighing. "Creoft is not gonna like this."

Some hours later, Falcher found Creoft with Tullus chugging drink after drink at a tavern in the Town of Initiation. Creoft leaned back in his chair, feet on the table as he downed a fifth mug of mammoth ale. Tullus was hunched over the table staring at his now spoiled meal. Falcher walked over to them and took a seat. "How'd the meeting go?"

Tullus groaned like a lowly zombie. Creoft sat up and set his feet on the floor again. "Burrrrrp... ach, pardon. I need to really fix the flavoring of alcohol when I get out. This crap is weak, but um... the council took it in strides. It wasn't a happy bunch of people, especially since we lost track of that Mother of Darkness."

"I bring news of my own then. Our wonderful ginger tank, he's up and left."

"Up and left?" Creoft sat up and set his mug down. "When, why?"

"He's going after the world boss. He's going to try to anyway."

"Why didn't you stop him? Judas is a rank four boss."

"You don't think I tried, the kid is stubborn as hell and now he's operating under the assumption that Judas has his wife hostage."

"He does realize that it's impossible to be taken hostage by mobs."

"He might, I'm not sure anymore. I doubt he'll find Judas. I'm gonna need your help finding him."

"Alright, fine. Let me finish this horse piss and I'll meet up with you by the transit shrine in Ashua."

The transit shrine in Ashua was set in the town of Randstad. The stone walls blocked out the frigid gales of the frozen wasteland. However, the whistling from the winds still echoed throughout the town. Falcher was leaning against the side of a building twirling a gold coin between his fingers when Creoft and Tullus appeared at the shrine. A third person was with them, a young but lean male wearing leather straps across his chest and legs, hardly warm enough for an autumnal day. The three of them walked over to Falcher. Creoft then introduced the young male, "I figured we may need some extra DPS and a temp tank until we can get Tang back. This kid is Pyroholiday, Tullus' own ax wielder, and player tracker."

Pyroholiday greeted Falcher, "So you're the guy we're helping, fantastic. Where did you last see this Tangurple?"

"We were in Jonkas, across the map from here. It's a day's walk from here," Falcher told him.

"Then we must go ASAP. Tracks do not stay valid for long and we'll lose him if we dally. Make haste." a split second later, Pyroholiday took off in a full sprint for the city gates.

Falcher turned to Creoft, "you trust him?"

"I trust him as much I can trust anyone, it's the class I'm trusting more right now," Creoft replied. "Come on, he's right about the tracks. We should catch up with him before we lose our tracker."

The three of them ran after him and caught up with him just a little down the road from Randstad. Partway through the day, they came across an old set of ruins that seemed recognizable. Creoft pointed it out quickly. "We've been here before, this is that church Tang told us about, with the hermit."

Pyroholiday immediately began searching around the ruins checking footprints in the snow. After a few minutes, he called out to the group, "Hey guys! I got fresh tracks. Few hours old. They head northwest towards the mountains."

"Northwest?" Falcher was intrigued, "He's going to the last possible spot for the vampirism cure shrine."

"But..." Pyroholiday added, "There's something following him. It's not a player, no player marker appears for it and it's not humanoid."

"What is it?"

"It's wearing armor but the shape suggests either a Fummau, Tasaki or gnoll. It's alone but I doubt it's weak. Is there another roamer boss we're not aware of?"

"God, I hope not. That's the last thing we need after the slaughter fest in Jonkas. How old is the print?"

"It's an hour younger than your friend's. It must have a tracking capability as well if it's following him."

"It's not a gnoll then. Gnollish mobs can't track, lore-wise at least. Fummau and Tasaki can. If the sentience of these mobs holds to the lore, then our culprit is either a fox or a cat-like mob. Should be relatively easy to kill them with poison attacks." Creoft explained.

"Alright, follow me."

"I need to catch him before he goes and does something stupid. I'll make a dash for the site, beat him there if I can." Falcher told them.

"My horror game senses are tingling Falcher. Don't go running off now." Creoft warned.

"He's my close friend. I need to get to him before he dies if this cat thing is hunting him. I won't let another friend die if I can help it. You guys can follow Pyro and the tracks, see if you can delay the monster."

"Falcher..." Before Creoft could anything though, Falcher had already turned and ran off into the snowy wasteland. "Son of a bitch..." Creoft grumbled. "Come on, let's follow the tracks and see if we can catch his pursuer."