Book 1: Chapter 5: Duel In The Dungeon

Son of Eternia

Book 1: ‘From Dusk ‘Till Twilight’

Chapter 5: ‘Duel In The Dungeon’

A story by TSMC\_Minecraft2009

Edited By Superbattleshipyamato & LordOfPixels7

“Delemier.”

Before the group built on an uneasy alliance and an unsure apology stood what was possibly one of the best hitmen and wizards in the entire server. If he had been sent here, he meant trouble. But something puzzled him. He had expected to only be taking on Decadence. That was the deal, that was the plan. But beside him stood another three people. Two of them were twins, judging by their inversed avatar designs. But the other…

“You know, if you beat him earlier, we wouldn’t have had to kick you out. You brought shame to the clan, Kath.” He said in a low tone, the words he spoke echoing off the sandy walls of the dungeon.

“Yeah, that might be true. But getting laid off from your bloody clan was probably the best thing that’s ever happened to me in the server. For a start, I no longer have to affiliate with the likes of you!”

“Ugh, such impudence! I had mind to let you go earlier, but my higher ups insisted that you had talent. And while I must admit that you do, you lacked the mental fortitude to be a part of us.”

Declan knew that the hitman in front of him was stalling… but why? Either way, he would have to fight the group; no hitman, even him, would be able to go 1 on 4.

“Quit your stalling man, I got better places to be!”

“And what makes you think that, you little scamp?”

“Things like that shouldn’t concern those who might as well start writing up their own obituary. You were only expecting me, weren’t you?”

“Indeed I was. Killing you should have been easy, and even if you somehow bested me in battle, I know what killing others does to you… *O’Connor*…”

Declan froze in place, the adrenaline coursing through his body back in the real world. Somehow, the Boss Wizards had managed to find out his real name. If they knew that, they probably knew where he lived. And if they knew where he lived, they could hurt the people he cared about most in life.

“How in Entity’s name… do you know that…”

“We have our ways, but things like that shouldn’t concern those who might as well start writing up their own obituary.”

At the repeat of his own line, something snapped inside him. He lunged towards Delemier, swinging his Katana and Wakizashi in what could only be described as a blind rage. But every single attack he made was blocked, repelled or otherwise magically nullified. He only stopped when the wizard hitman teleported away to the roof of the dungeon.

“Ah, scared of a little one on one combat are we? C’mon, let’s go for round two!”

Damien and Alex both placed their hands on Declan’s shoulders.

“We should leave while we can, man. If he beat the dungeon, the door should be open.”

“No, I don’t think you will.”

The group turned around to face Delemier and saw that his hand was just inches away from the fallen star that lay in the roof. Almost deliberately, he slowly advanced towards it, until he had made contact with a shard.

The sound he made could not be described in this mortal language, other than the fact that it was bloodcurdling, almost as if the fusion was hurting him in the real world. But damage in the server wasn’t supposed to affect you in the real world; extensions that allowed that were all bannable for safety reasons. But the way his face contorted in pain told the group that he really was feeling this. Sparks of light began to erupt out of him, slowly but surely consuming him more and more with each burst, until he eventually was nothing but a source of light. His skin began to grow back on him, or at least that’s what it looked like.

“I don’t know how you did it, but one of you made that actually hurt. You can either come forward, confess and face the consequences of your actions, or you can all face me for that. It’s your choice.”, Delemier said with an undertone of annoyance.

Phoenix let out a low whisper so only the group could here. “I guess my virus did work. Heh. Looks like we’ll have at least one upper hand.”

The group turned around to face him, with a look of confusion and intrigue on their faces. But their time doing so was cut short as they heard a deafening crack beside them, sounding not unlike thunder.

“Well, I suppose we’ll find out the hard way, eh? Your choice, not mine… Actually, no, I have a better idea.”

Delemier floated down to the group, seeming eerily calm compared to before. “However, I am a man of integrity and honour…” He began to speak, before being interrupted by Declan.

“Yeah, and I’m on the Vostok spacecraft. Do continue, though.”

Delemier rolled his eyes at the obvious sarcasm, something that he loathed. “Such impudence… And because of these traits, I am willing to make this fight a tad more… fair. Not out of the goodness of my heart, but because killing you all, here and now, would be boring. No fun in anything easy, you see.”

Kathnisha stepped forward to face her old peer. “And how exactly would this… ‘fairness’ be implemented?”

“One of you, and only one, may obtain a shard of the crying star, gaining the same powers that I have now. The rest of you with leave this wretched dungeon if you have enough brain power to value your lives, and the one left behind will fight me, and most likely die. A battle of skill, not innate ability.” Delemier floated back up to the ceiling of the room.

Ashgem tapped on Declan’s shoulder and whispered into his ears. “Don’t do it man, it’s trap. I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”

Declan turned around to reply to his friend. “If you know it’s a trap, then it’s not a trap; it’s a duel.”

Phoenix and Kathnisha both slapped their foreheads, obviously doubting as to whether their ally could do this.

“Go on, scram. I’ve got a duel to get to.”

Behind the pale grey, bloodshot eyes of Delemier lay a single, inaudible chuckle. Decadence, the player who had been causing such a stir this last week, had fallen right into his trap. It was perfect, almost *too* perfect. But he didn’t make note of that. Everything was going according to plan.

“Now, would you mind explaining how exactly I can get up there? I don’t have the magic floaty abilities.”

Delemier didn’t even turn to face Declan as he replied. “And to think we actually considered you a major threat. Use your ingenuity, you utter Neanderthal…” He was about to continue when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Strange, considering he was around 30 feet in the air.

“Hi.”

Floating up next to him was Declan, now possessing the same powers as him.

“Levelling the playing field probably wasn’t the best idea you’ve had, but now this will be a little more entertaining.”

And so a battle between the two ensued. It was said later that if someone had been standing even at the edge of the biome, they would have heard what sounded like an intense battle of thunderstrikes and lightning. Initially, they both seemed to be evenly matched in their skill and stamina. But as time flew by, Declan started to fatigue: making more mistakes, letting more attacks hit him. Slowly but surely, his health was draining. Even with the advantage he had over Delemier in that he didn’t feel any of the hits that landed on him, be began to faulter. And in this, a toxic combination of self-doubt and blind rage began to coat his eyes, blinding him in a fog.

“Oh, O’Connor. You’ve disappointed me in ways that I couldn’t even imagine. You’re weak, you lack determination, and worst of all, you actually care about your ‘friends’. What was the first thing they did when you got these powers not even an hour ago? They abandoned you, left you here to die at my hands!”

Declan panted in strained breaths, struggling to make a reply; even thinking of one was physically taxing to him. Yet, he managed somehow.

“There’s… there’s a difference between you and me. One that… will mean the downfall of one of us in the future…”

“Oh. And what would that be? Something pathetic and to the trope, like the power of friendship? Honestly you are a fool.”

“No… I got people that actually care about me: not just what I can do. Think about it… the minute you stop being useful to the Boss Wizards, you think they’ll still waste their time and resources… on you? There’s a difference between being wanted and needed, and only sticking around because you have… a use to them. They don’t care about you: only your use to them.”

Declan sheathed his katana in his belt, gesturing for his opponent to do the same. In his mind, even in its current foggy state, he believed deep down that there was something in Delemier, that if not he could change, he could reveal. Despite this, his opponent kept his blade in hand, but stayed still: his face devoid of any emotion. For the first time in almost half an hour, The Grave of the Fallen Star lay still and silent.

“Oh, I see what you’re trying to do here O’Connor. Placing my defences down, trying to open up a weak spot in my mind. Well, it won’t work, I know better than that. Training under the wizards can do this for you. In fact, my superiors even considered letting you join us. But… I think otherwise.”

“I’m not trying to do any of that. I’m not even doing what deep down, I know you think I’m doing. This… isn’t for your redemption. But, as you probably already know, I can’t kill another conscious being, even… no, especially in this blasted server.”

“Your sense of compassion will be your downfall, O’Connor. You will get close to someone, they’ll get hurt. You’ll fall into a blind rage as you did before, and then you’ll get hurt. I…”

“That’s not the reason I can’t do it.”

“Of course it is. What else could there be?”

“I don’t know why in the name of Entity I’m telling you this… wait, why did we even stop fighting? We’ve been at it for almost an hour… ah crud.”

At that moment, the power of the star wore off for the both of them, sending them both falling towards the ground with a thud. Due to the fall damage, they were both fazed for a moment, before they got back to what could be considered normal. Declan, seeing the situation at hand, considered fleeing the dungeon. But something about the strained face of his opponent changed his mind. Due to the virus Phoenix installed, every hit that Declan had landed was felt, the full force of every impact coursing through his nervous system. He extended a hand towards Delemier, not sure how he would react to this gesture. He wasn’t going to kill someone, not today.

“Hey. You don’t look that crash hot… you okay?”

“No… I don’t get it. I had the training, the skills and the XP levels to win this… I spent over a full day just power-levelling for this encounter. And you still don’t die.”

“Well, let’s just say this duel ended in a tie and leave it at that, okay…?”

As Declan looked into the eyes of his opponent, he saw something different. They were no longer pale and bloodshot as they were before. In fact, you could almost say that the light and life behind them had been reawakened. But how, and why?

Delemier began to rant to himself. “Why do you do this? Hell, why do I? Surely there are better things we could be doing with our time than duelling in a dungeon like this, in a virtual world.”

“Granted, you are the one that attacked first.” Declan chuckled a bit to himself. “Also, something that I wanted to say. When I first saw you, your eyes seemed lifeless, pale and bloodshot. But now, less so. I’ve heard of headsets that can read your retinal patterns and display them, but… and you seem less aggressive than before. I’m not trying to say or imply anything, just stating what I know.”

Delemier finally sheathed his own blade, signifying that he was going to fight. “That would maybe be the pills I took… I feel a bit more… lightheaded than I did before.”

Declan intrigue had only increased after hearing this. “Are you on some kind of medication or something, or…”

“There is no need to worry about my state of health, O’Connor. I’m not some drug junkie. Only took these because my someone in the Boss Wizards sent me them.”

Time seemed to pause as the words flew out of his mouth. Declan had known that the Boss Wizards weren’t exactly the friendliest clan around. After all, they had sent two of their best after him in Kathnisha and Delemier. But… sending some kind of drug, one that obviously increased aggression to their members… that felt too low, even for them. Declan again questioned Delemier about it, almost feeling concerned for him. But his former opponent seemed to know about as much about them as he did: only knowing they were sent by someone high up in the clan, coming in a package that was obviously hand-delivered to his own home in Wisconsin. Everything about this felt off: Why would the wizards only sent one person to fight Dec if they knew about what happened to Kathnisha? Did they know the home address of all their members, or was Del a singular exception? And how did they manage to find any information on Declan? He had covered all his tracks, used encrypted chat logs in the past. Once again, things just didn’t make sense. But there was little time to ponder over the irregularities of the encounter that had taken place.

Delemier climbed up the horseshoe-shaped stairs at the end of the room, and sat down in exhaustion. The battle had obviously taken a toll on him, both mentally, due to the mental strain that playing the server excessively can bring, and physically, thanks to the program that Phoenix had somehow installed. Declan slowly stumbled up the stairs to sit by him, wondering what was going to happen now.

“You… alright?”

“Been better, been worse, believe it or not. You sure do pack a punch, man.”

“Kind of off topic, but… before you were talking in an almost aggressive Shakespearian manner, but now you aren’t. Any reason for that.”

The accent that came out of Del’s mouth seemed totally different from the one that he used before.

“Och, away wi’ ye. People dinae understand ye, le’ alone respect ye if all ya go’ fo’ them ta hear is yer bloody Scottish accent. I cannae deal wi’ it… So instead, I put on this fake, upper class Victorian accent. Even if they can’t understand it, they certainly do respect it.”

“Well, what do we do now? I feel like I’ve been in this situation before.”

“Well, obviously, either I’m going to die, or you are. But, either way, you are going to be hunted like a wild animal, Decadence.”

“Well, come on, use your thinking hat. There has to be some sort of solution!”

The pair both sat on the stairs, trying to think of a way to get them both out of this mess alive. But no idea would guarantee the survival of either them. Well, no idea except one that Delemier thought of almost a quarter of an hour later.

“It’s stupid, but it’ll work. I have a solution.”

“Well, go on. I’ll take anything at this point.”

“What about we fake your death? You change your display name and go under a different alias, and I pretend that I managed to beat you.”

“Potentially… but what about my inventory? Surely your higher ups would want it as some kind of confirmation of my kill? They know what happened last time…”

“I’ll just say you put curse of vanishing on everything but a stack of Draken. Do we have a deal?” Delemier extended his hand.

Declan took the hand and shook it firmly. “Make sure you give me inside scoop on what’s happening in the clan, and all will be good.”

“Stay dead, man. It’s the best thing for your health.”

At that moment, the both of them selected the ‘log off’ button from the menu. Delemier woke up in his dim apartment on the outskirts of Glascow, and Declan in his home. He heard a bit of commotion from downstairs, and his door opened. But, due to the fatigue, he didn’t take off the headset. From what he heard, Ethan entered the room.

“Hey kiddo… you’ve got a visitor. They’ve been waiting patently for you for a little while now…” Ethan said with slight trepidation.

Declan made a tired reply. “Send them on up then… and just give me a second to get my energy back…”

“They already took the liberty of doing that themselves…”

Declan felt the headset being slowly pulled off of his head. As the natural light touched his eyes for the first time in what seemed like hours, he felt blinded. However, as they slowly adjusted, he saw a figure standing over him, a fuzzy, blurry figure, but one he soon recognized. The dark curly hair, and the fair skin told him that Valorie sat on the edge of his bed.

“So… busy with something in the server, huh? You looked pretty calm to me…” She asked with an undertone of emotion that couldn’t be discerned.

“Uh… my head… I told you before, being ‘under’ the headset means that your movement in the real world is restricted to prevent you from thrashing around and hitting your friends by accident. Thus, facial expressions are also repressed. Anyway, how may I help you?”

Damien and Alex entered the room at that point, equally confused as to what was going on. Damien was the first to speak.

“Dude, we’ve been trying to reach you for an hour! Don’t tell me you’ve been battling Del for all that time…”

Declan just stood and stared at the group that had swarmed into his room in under a minute.

“What in Entity’s name is going on? You two! I didn’t tell you my address, how did you get here?”

Alex replied to Declan’s rather wail. “Relax, man. We just called the girl sitting on your bed around half an hour ago. We didn’t dox you or anything like that. I’m not that evil.”

Declan simply fell back on his bed from exhaustion, unsure of what to make of the situation.

He decided the best plan of attack was to just pre-emptively answer the unasked questions. “I’m assuming you’ll all want a rundown of what happened in the past hour, right? Basically, I fought an overpowered dude from the Boss Wizards, and he didn’t kill me. This sent him off into a blind rage, but the effects of the crying star wore off around that time. Blah blah, I try to make peace out of the situation, Valorie knows why, we talk. Turns out, dude was apparently mailed some drugs by the wizards, still haven’t got the story straight, and that’s why he was so mad. But they wore off, as I said, talked, blah blah. But, I’m in a similar predicament as last time. If I log on, they’ll know he didn’t actually kill me. And they’ll just hunt me down. So I’m basically locked out of the server, unless one of you can think of a solution to this mess.”

Everyone else in the room simply stood there, gob-smacked. Clearly, the chain of events that was unfolding around them was getting wilder by the second.

Again, Alex cam with a reply. “Simple fix to that. Just change your display name to something else, private the account details, and bam! You have a new identity, and get to keep the ‘Decadence’ handle. Got to think of a new name though, but I’m sure you can do that.”

Everyone changed their viewpoint from the exhausted Declan to the currently standing Alex, partially surprised by how quickly he thought of a solution. “What, I know the ins and outs of the server better than… probably half the admins on it. How do you think I got the worm program into Del’s headset that allowed him to feel real pain… he probably won’t thank you for that.”

Declan just groaned, slicking his long hair back behind his head. “He’ll probably keep that grudge for a while, so I wouldn’t bring it up if I were you. Anyway, everything with me is fine, I’ll safe and sound…”

Valorie’s expression changed to one of concern. “Declan, from what Alex and Damien told me, you are not ‘fine.’ Those… Boss Wizards know where you live, they know your name, and chances are what you look like. I don’t know their motives and intentions.” She placed her hand on his shoulder. “But if they involve you getting hurt in any way, I don’t care. You need to take extra care in everything you do.”

Declan sighed again, almost too tired to understand what his friends were saying. “I appreciate your concern, Val, but so long as I’m not a threat to them, they won’t care. They have bigger matters on their hands than a single 14-year old. I remember hearing a rumour while back saying that The Lost Legion is stockpiling weapons, and strategising on how to win the next major contest. Chances are, they’ll pool all their resources into that instead of me. And if they think my account is dead as my will to live…, well… I’ll be safe. Besides, thanks to Alex over here, we have a way to counter all that!”

Declan sat up next to his friend, reassuring her of his safety.

“Anyway, come on! We’re all at my house, let’s talk about something a little bit more uplifting!”

And, for a while at least, that’s what they did. Talking about anything and everything that came to their minds, from fantasy stories to the economics of string cheese. That lingering feeling that there was danger in the air slowly and surely dissipated away with time, and the mood of the room lifted. They felt like young kids again, not having a care in the world. But it was obvious that the conversations were winding down, and soon all of them would need to head home. In fact, it was already dark out.

“I guess you guys should probably leave now… it’s still a school night after all.”

Damien and Alex both said their farewells and made their way downstairs, knowing full well that their friend was now alone with Valorie.

“Now, with them out of the room, I gotta ask… you know you essentially drug your da… sorry, father in order to get out and do anything?”

Valorie looked a bit nervous when he reminded her of that, but answered his question anyway. “Yeah… what about it?”

“Did you remember to do it this time?”

“Of course I did! I wouldn’t even be here if he wasn’t… but it’s probably going to wear off soon… I should get going now as well…”

It seemed like there was a lump in Declan’s throat. He wanted, nay, needed to say something, but he felt like some outside force was preventing him from doing so.

“Val… it’s dark out, and… you wouldn’t mind if I walked you home, right?”

Instead of the negative reaction he had been bracing himself for, Valorie merely raised her eyebrow. “Sure, that’s probably for the best anyway.”

They both made their own way down the stairs, catching the eye of Ethan, who was sitting in the living room, reading some sort of magazine.

“And where do you two think you’re going at this hour?”

“Just walking her home, dad. Nothing to worry about.”

“Oh, alright then. But be home soon, okay? It’s already dark out…”

“I know, I know…”

Declan and Valorie both made their way down the dimly lit streets of the town. The yellow streetlights offered little illumination, and what they did provide felt harsh on their eyes. It felt unusually cold for an August evening, and their breath could be seen when exhaled. The trek was silent, almost eerily so. It seemed like everything they could have sad for the day had already been done so. It didn’t take long for them to arrive back at Valorie’s house, and soon, they just stood near the front walkway, wanting to say their goodbyes to one another, but not being able to get anything out. It was weird to them: In the past, they had been able to talk to one another so easily. Even an hour ago, when surrounded by friends it felt different. But, with the two of them alone, something lingered and lithered in the air.

“Well, I suppose I’ll be seeing you tomorrow… night, Val…”

“Night Declan… see you tomorrow…”

In the cold air of the night, Valorie wrapped her arms around the shoulders of her friend, embracing him in a sole, warm embrace. It was unexpected, but nice feeling, and was over almost before it began. She quickly scuttled off back inside her home, being sure to take precaution in the amount of noise she let off, leaving Declan by the porch, slightly dumbfounded. With it still on his mind, floating around like pieces of fish in a bowl, he made his way back to his own home, re-tracing the route he had taken earlier. Opening his own door, he saw Ethan standing in the hallway.

“And there he is! You were back quicker than I expected…”

“Daaad… anyway, mind if I can have a talk with you about something…?”

“Is it about her?”

“No! For goodness sake, calm down. It’s about something that happened on that… server of yours.”

At the mention of the Aetherian Server, a floodgate of memories re-opened themselves in Ethan’s mind. He had spent years developing it, but had been off of it for even longer at this point.

“Oh, uh… yeah, ask away! I’m not going to give you any backdoor commands, if that’s what you’re searching for.”

“No, something a bit simpler than that, actually.” Declan chuckled. He relayed the events that had taken place an hour before in the Grave of the Fallen Star, leaving out the whole anger-enhancing drug part; how he had eventually made peace with Del, and how he was now effectively a dead man walking.

“And, that’s where you come in. I just help thinking of a new Alias. Decadence has been with me for a while, and I will keep it as my account handle, but I’ll need something new. That’s all.”

Ethan raised his glasses to his forehead, something that he did often when thinking. After around a minute, he had finally formulated a response.

“Well, I’ve thought of something, and it might sound kind of cringe, but hear me out. Back when I developed for Aetheria, I went under the name ‘Eternia’, since it was close enough to my own name. But, I’ve kinda fallen into obscurity after… however many years of being inactive. And, since you’re my son, I thought the name ‘Son of Eternia’ had a nice ring to it.”

“Dad… that actually is a pretty neat name. I’ll be using.”

Internally, a sigh of relief can from Ethan. He hadn’t known exactly how his adopted kid would exact to all that, especially the ‘my son’ part. But, it had seemingly paid off better than he had hoped.

Declan hugged his father, and headed up to his room to head off to sleep. Something around him was shaping up to happen. But exactly what is was…

Now that was the million dollar question.

End of Chapter 5.

Declan ‘Decadence’ O’Connor, the Son of Eternia will return in:

Chapter 6: ‘Moonshroad.’