《Denying fate : path of the dark paladin》 Prologue - The paladins lament Prologue She knew it was wrong. She knew it was wrong, stupid and irrational in every way. Her mind kept telling her to turn back but she still found herself descending down the old and moldy stairs , moving ever deeper into the underground dungeon beneath the Hetrius arena. She passed patrolling guards and the stationed sentries with absolute ease. She was quite accomplished in the arts of magic and casting a veil of invisibility around herself was child''s play to her, the guards would sooner detect a specter before they detected her. As she smoothly made her way through the maze of tunnels , she could hear scratching, growling and other threatening sounds coming from all around her but she barely cast a look towards the many eyes staring at her with bestial rage and madness. They might glow threateningly in the dark but all the beasties were locked away securely behind ademantium bars where they were kept until they were taken to the arena to fight for the amusement of a bloodthirsty crowd. She didn''t feel a drop of pity as she passed the imprisoned monsters, they were nothing but mindless animals and she didn''t give a damn whether they lived or died. No, her interests lay even deeper in the bowels of the dungeon. She finally reached the very lowest part of the dungeons, a place simply known as The Pit. No guards patrolled this area, if something escaped from here they wouldn''t have stood a chance against it anyway. It was eerily dark and silent as she carefully stepped forward. The floor was no longer the cobblestone that paved the rest of the dungeon, the floor was now treacherous and littered with jagged knife like rocks. She needed to be careful when she took her steps lest she trips and find herself impaled by the countless protrusions . The Pits were a system of natural caverns repurposed into a prison for the most dangerous creatures of the arena, nightmarish monsters that could destroy armies and deadly beasts created by the god of death himself. As she navigated her way through The Pits , she saw vile abominations and twisted creatures , all brightly displayed in the darkness by the blue glow of the complex and intricate magic circles that kept them confined. Unlike the simple creatures imprisoned in the upper layers, these ones didn''t growl or try to get at her. No, these creatures just silently followed her with their eyes which was more unsettling to her than the beasts who had impotently growled and lunged at her at the upper levels because the glint of intelligence in these creature''s eyes was only too apparent. These creatures were smart, they didn''t waste their energy on something impossible, instead they bid their time and waited for the right time to strike. She went deeper into the pits under the scrutinizing gazes of the surrounding predators and as she continued going deeper the creatures only grew more and more dangerous until she came face to face with a door. Now, this was no ordinary door. It was a door forged from pure moon-silver and almost every inch of it was covered with glowing symbols that throbbed with power. The door didn''t have a knob, latches , or any other opening mechanism on its smooth silver surface but that didn''t deter the woman. She stepped forward and pulled out a locket that was hanging on a golden chain around her neck. She lifted the locket up to the door and the whole door turned translucent, she then stepped through the now insubstantial door and stepped into a dark room. She squinted her eyes and tried to see into the pitch black room but she couldn''t find the thing she was looking for even with her sight boosted by several spells. As she turned her head from side to side looking for her target, a hand appeared from behind her and fingers hard with calluses wrapped around her neck, "I thought I told you to never come back here again." The voice that spoke was a low rumble reminiscent of a thunderstorm or a volcano about to explode. It was a voice that inspired fear and awe in many but the woman wasn''t cowed by the man''s intimidating voice. Instead of cowering she straightened her back and replied with a clear voice, "You did, I just decided to ignore you." The hand holding her neck tightened ever so slightly, "You are playing a dangerous game princess. Maybe I should just snap your pretty little neck and use that amulet of yours to escape this wretched hole." "Do you think I will fall for your scare tactics? If you are going to do it, then do it. Snap my neck and you will have the freedom you so deeply desire. Kill me and you can return to your homeland and you will never have to see the blighted lands again. Well, what are you waiting for?" The princess fearlessly raised her chin to give him better access to her neck. For a moment both of them were absolutely still as the princess put her life in the hands of a desperate man. Minutes passed by but the fingers around her neck did not constrict. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. She placed her own much more delicate hands upon the hand around her neck before she gently removed it and turned around to face her assailant, "You can''t do it , can you?" The large man who had been threatening her only moments ago turned his face away from the princess , trying to avert his eyes so that he wouldn''t have to look into her lovely lilac orbs but the princess didn''t let him. She gently placed her hand on the side of his face amidst his wildly overgrown auburn beard and turned his face back to her so that they were standing face to face with their lips almost touching and their warm breath mingling with each other. The contrast between the two was as clear as night and day; the tall beautiful willowy princess with her fancy looking dress dripping with jewelry and the unkempt looking mountain of a man wearing nothing to cover his muscular body which had horrible scars crisscrossing around most of it. She looked fragile next to him but it was clear for all to see that she had the power in this situation. The princess looked at the man with deep tenderness and affection in her eyes before she rested her forehead against his, "Oh how I wish you could abandon your oath and discard your honor. There are no gods in the twilight kingdom, your oath means nothing here. Why do you insist on remaining stubborn? Why must you be so mule headed ? Can''t you see that they are trying to kill you? Each time they pit you against impossible odds and every time you triumph it only angers them. I can''t bear to watch another match when I know that it will be your last. They are planning on having the arch mages of the kingdom summon a chaos beast from the sixth circle of the abyss. Please, just take the amulet and leave before it is too late." "You know that I can not do that. If I take the amulet then you will be trapped here in my stead. You might be a princess but that will not save you when the Staavi come for you." "To the abyss with the Staavi! Their torture will only be a light tickle when compared to the agony of watching you die. I beg you Nicolas , just take the amulet and leave." Nicolas placed his own hand on her face and he lightly caressed her dusky skin,"And what makes you think that my agony will be any less than yours if I let you die because of me? Do you think that I love you any less than you love me Annette?" He wiped the tear that was rolling down her cheek and brushed her silver hair behind her ear to reveal that it was dainty and pointy, "Don''t be sad princess. Know that I die a happy man. The time I have spent with you has made everything I have been through worth it. My only regret in like is that I couldn''t be with you longer." "So this is goodbye?" "We paladins don''t believe in goodbyes, when we are about to die we only say ''until the next life'' ." The princess and the paladin spent the rest of the night in each other''s arms, locked in a passionate embrace. The next morning the paladin woke up and felt that something was terribly wrong. With a heavy feeling in his chest he turned around to look for the princess and found her lying on the floor. At first he thought that she was still sleeping but something about her unnatural stillness made him think that something wasn''t right. He rushed over to her and found out that her breathing was shallow and that the cherry red lips that he had kissed just last night were slowly turning purple. He knew about poisons and he knew that only one herb could cause these symptoms so quickly, a bush named the reaper''s thorn. He tried to perform his highest level heal and cure spells but it was all for naught because the room he was in was warded against magic. All he could do was rage and scream as the woman he loved slowly died in front of him. When the princess finally took her last breath ,an envelope fell out of her left hand. The paladin picked up the envelope and opened it. Inside he found the amulet and a piece of paper with only four words on it. Until the next life. Chapter One - Most Wanted Chapter One It was always jarring. The jump from one reality to another was always unsettling even for those that go through it on a daily basis like Nick did. Nicholas was definitely one of the veterans of the game, dedicating his entire life to the other reality and as such going through the jump several times a day whenever he needed to take care of his bodily needs but even he needed a few minutes to shake off the disorientation as the large cable directly plugged into the base of his neck released him and he woke up from the massive shared virtual dream known as Bifr?st. Nicholas no longer inhabited the body of a half dwarf half barbarian paladin he felt most comfortable in , in this world he was something much less impressive. The massive frame of the powerful warrior was replaced by a wiry body, a body whilst not being comparable to his avatar''s mighty body , was tough in its own way, shaped by years upon years of living as one of the many homeless orphans that grew up at the mercy of the unforgiving streets of New Delhi. The pupils in Nicholas''s brown eyes were constantly dilating and constricting as they always did in the aftermath of logging off from the game but he was eventually able to focus on the rather narrow area of his one bedroom apartment. He didn''t even have to move his eyes to take in the view of his sad excuse for an apartment, he could clearly see the toilet, shower head, kitchen sink and bed all at the same time. When the apartment was described as a one bedroom apartment it didn''t mean that it was an apartment with one bedroom, rather it meant that the one bedroom was the apartment. After he was finished looking around at his miserable excuse for an apartment , he pulled himself up from the ragged couch he had found abandoned in an alley and which was coincidentally the only piece of furniture in the room that wasn''t bolted down with titanium screws to prevent theft. He moved a few steps , nimbly navigating through the cramped confines of his room with practiced ease until he stood before the kitchen sink which doubled as the bathroom sink. He washed his face with the not so clean water that the faucet expunged. He cupped the cold water with a slight tint of brown visible inside of it and without using any soap washed his face as best he could, soap wasn''t something only rich people could afford these days and Nicholas definitely wasn''t rich. After scrubbing his face for a while, Nicholas decided that his face was as clean as it was going to get and he looked up to see his own reflection staring back at him in the mirror. Unlike what his name implied, Nicholas was actually a hundred percent Indian with the classic dark skin and even darker hair typically seen in most Indians. The reason he had a western name was because he had spent the first years of his life in an orphanage run by the new wave Jesuit missionaries sent from Spain and he was named by Sister Mary Livingston, the kindly old woman who had run the orphanage before the church was closed down to make way for the ambitions of one of the many wealthy international companies who ran the world with their immense wealth and uncontrollable appetites. Sister Mary had named him after one of the happier saints in the bible, one associated with the myth of Santa Claus. Maybe she wanted his life to be one of bringing joy to others, he was never sure, the only true home he had ever known was destroyed when he was just five years old and he never had the chance to ask her before she had vanished mysteriously along with all the other staff members of the orphanage, leaving the children to fend for themselves. Nicholas automatically raised his hand and touched the silver pendant around his neck as he remembered his time at the orphanage. The pendant had been given to him by Sister Mary just like his name and both had gotten him beaten up on the streets on more than one occasion but since they were reminders of happier times , he had fought tooth and nail against the bullies to protect the only things precious to him, the things that reminded him of the only family he had ever had. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Nicholas''s hand slipped from the pendant to the scars beneath it that crisscrossed his chest, also reminders of memories in his past but ones he would rather forget. The streets of New Delhi were not merciful to the weak and before Nicholas had learned the ways of the street, he had been nothing but a soft target, a favorite past time for the many predators out on the prowl. He had suffered from beating after beating and he was lucky to have made it out alive. Nicholas was slowly caressed the scars on his chest and remembering all of the shit he had been through as a child when the mirror in front of him started to glow blue and started to play a song by Luciano Pavarotti, Nichols''s ring tone. After Nicholas waved his hand at the mirror, his reflection was replaced by the image of a smiling woman, "Hello Nick, long time no see. How are you?" Most people would have been thrilled to have such a pretty woman look at them with sparkling eyes and a coy smile but Nick knew the woman in front of him very well, she might have been a petite and harmless looking beauty that could make the hearts of most men flutter but Nick knew her back from the streets. This ''cute'' and ''harmless'' girl used to turn tricks near the sidewalk where Nick used to sleep and Nick also knew that her ''customers'' usually never came a second time, in fact her customers usually seemed to disappear without a trace. Nick suspected that this girl had probably killed more people than the most hardened murderers and criminals in New Delhi. "Cut the crap Zara, what do you want?" The girl pouted making her look even more cute and innocent,"Nicky, why are you always like this? It''s almost as if you aren''t happy to see me." "There was some ambiguity? In that case let me clear things up, I am not happy to see you, now spit out out what you want to say or fuck off." "Fine, if you are going to be like that then I will get to the point, I want you to join my clan. You are one of the few remaining Alpha testers that hasn''t joined our side yet. I want you to join the other Alphas and I am willing to cut you a pretty sweet deal for your cooperation." "You want me to join the Alphas? Well I want world peace and unlimited wealth, sadly neither one of us is getting what we want." Contrary to Nick''s expectation, Zara wasn''t upset by his answer , instead the ruby red lips of her cute little mouth curled up into a sinister little smile. "Hmmm...that is sad, if you aren''t part of our clan then we can''t really protect you." Nick started to have a bad feeling as he saw that smile on Zara''s face, "Why would I need your protection?" Zara picked up a tablet and with a flourish presented it in front of Nick. It was a list of the world bosses in Bifrost, a list that Nick and every other serious gamer was very familiar with. It was a list of incredibly powerful monsters in the game that people could fight to get amazing rewards. The list comprised of ten creatures that could easily defeat armies and destroy cities but it also meant that any clan that manages to defeat such monsters would get unimaginable rewards from the system based on the rank of the defeated monster. And on this list of calamity grade monsters there was a flashing name on the list signifying a new entry. On the very top of the list in the number one position were two words. Nicholas - Paladin Chapter two - glimpses Chapter two "Join us Nick. You just became the number one target in the entire game. You might be strong but you are only one person. If one of the guilds decide to come after you, which after this announcement is going to be all but certain, you are going to be hunted down and killed like a dog. Join us and nobody will even dare to look at you crooked let alone try to kill you." Zara''s eyes were shining as she made what she thought was an offer that nobody would refuse, a perfect blend of the carrot and the stick; don''t join us and die or you can join up and reap unimaginable benefits but Nicholas didn''t even show a hint of interest. "Thanks but no thanks Zara. I don''t need your help. Besides, it''s not like anybody knows where I am right now. I''ll just vanish into one of the high leveled areas before anybody can get to me." Zara''s solicitous attitude suddenly vanished and was replaced by her predatory smile,"Are you sure about that?" She took out a blurry picture and showed it to Nicholas,"Looks familiar?" "Is this a joke? Are you trying to bluff me into joining your little psycho club using a blurry picture? Are you underestimating me that much Zara or are you just losing your touch?" Her crafty smile never faltered,"This picture was sent to me by one of our junior members that just happened to be in Dark Moon city when a supposed beast broke out from the Hetrius gladiatorial arena. He didn''t see much because he died instantly but he was able to take this picture." Nicholas''s heart rate suddenly sped up but he still maintained his poker face as he said, "And that has something to do with me how?" Zara''s smile became a touch sardonic, "Really Nick? Are you really going to continue to play dumb? The image might have been unclear but I can still see the white armor with the golden dragon imprints, a set of unique armor worn only by you, a set of armor you took from me." "A lot of armor has dragons inscribed on them. That picture could be of anyone, you are just grasping at straws." "Then you won''t mind if I sold this information to the other guilds? I''m sure they would pay a lot of money to know the location of the number one world boss in the game." "Go ahead. If you can find someone dumb enough to buy unsubstantiated nonsense then knock yourself out but you better be ready to refund their cash when your wild conjuncture turns out to be false." If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Zara''s smile finally slipped a little and traces of anger colored her eyes, "Why are you being so stubborn. We are the same, you and I. We were both in the streets struggling to survive on scraps while the rich lived comfortably, not even deigning to acknowledge our existence and as if that wasn''t enough the Haven Corporation kidnapped us to perform experiments on us. They called us ''Alpha testers'' but we both know that we were nothing more than guinea pigs used to adjust the game until it was safe for the paying consumers to enjoy. Half of us died so that the rich people and the pampered little kids could play a realistic game without any consequences. Why do you refuse to get revenge on those that have wronged us?" Nicholas just laughed sarcastically at her comment,"Do you really think randomly PKing people and doing terrible things to them is going to help you get revenge? Wake up Zara! Do you think Haven would let you exist in the game if they didn''t want you to? Do you think they gave us lifetime subscriptions to the game because they felt guilty about what they have done to us? Do you really think that just because you are no longer in their lab that you are no longer their test subject? You are nothing but a hamster in a wheel in their eyes. You keep running but you don''t actually achieve anything." Flames of anger and resentment burned in the depth of Zara''s eyes and she grit her teeth,"At least we are doing something! At least we are trying to resist! Do you think you are better than us? What have you done to look down on us?" Nicholas''s smile became sad and tears started flowing silently from his eyes as his recent memories flooded his mind, "What have I done? I fell in love with a dream and then I watched the dream turn into a nightmare as I helplessly looked on. I tried to escape from this cold and cruel world only to find that the game could be even crueler. What have I done? I sold my soul to the devil Zara, and for a while I gained paradise but then I saw that paradise turn into ashes before my eyes." "What are you talking about? Are you alright Nick? What happened?" Nicholas just shook his head sadly, "Goodbye Zara. Don''t call me again." Zara tried to speak but Nicholas just terminated the call. He no longer felt like talking. Chapter three - hope Chapter three Nicholas turned away from the mirror and was about to leave his apartment when another face appeared on the screen, this time it was the face of a middle aged man with nondescript features. The man looked so ordinary that it was actually extraordinary. He had normal brown eyes, normal black hair, features that weren''t too handsome or ugly , basically you couldn''t pick him out of a crowd in any part of India. This ordinary looking man was anything but ordinary. He was the head of research and development at the Haven corporation and one of the geniuses who was behind the development of Bifrost. His name was Satvik. Satvik had a benevolent smile on his average looking face as he looked at Nicholas. "Good afternoon Nick. How are you doing?" Nicholas didn''t look happy to see the man, in fact he looked like he had eaten something bitter, his face scrunched up in anger, "Cut the crap Satvik, you owe me an explanation. I have done everything you have asked me to do so far. I have never complained , even when you decreased my pain filters to only fifteen percent. I have kept my word and adhered to my end of our bargain. For three years you put me through unimaginable pain but I still stuck with you. All these years I haven''t asked for anything but the one thing. One thing, Satvik! I asked you for one thing ! I asked you to keep the princess safe but you failed to do that one little thing and now she is dead." Satvik looked embarrassed as he spoke, "I''m sorry Nick, you know that the system is incredibly complex and fully autonomous. We protected the princess from external forces but failed to take into account that she would sacrifice herself for you." Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. "Well I don''t give a fuck. I no longer want anything to do with you or your company. I am canceling my subscription to Bifrost and I''m deleting my account. Goodbye Satvik." "Wait a minute! The princess can be saved!" Nicholas was going to make the gesture to end the call but he froze in mid motion when he heard that. "What?" "The princess, she can be saved." "The princess is dead. You might fool other people but i know that the NPCs in Bifrost can''t return once they die. I don''t want some replica that just looks like her." "You are right and wrong. As you know, we use artificial brains to simulate human thought processes in our important non-standard NPCs and yes when they die , this process is suspended until the sentient thoughts fade away but what you don''t know is that this process isn''t instantaneous, it takes three weeks to complete." "You mean..." Nicholas was afraid to finish his sentence, afraid that he was wrong. "Yes. The core of the princess, her soul, can be retrieved." "Then what are you waiting for? Do it!" "I''m afraid I can''t. The underworld protocol was programmed to scrub the cores so that they can be reused. I can''t really stop it without crashing the whole system but I can tell you how you can save her from the inside." Chapter four - the small temple Chapter four Nicolas looked around the smoking wreck that was once the largest city in Svatalfheim, the capital city of the twilight kingdom, Dark moon city. The once elegant buildings were nothing more than crumbling ruins, the once beautiful city was now desolate and depressing. The entire area looked like it had been systematically carpet bombed which wasn''t that far from the truth. Nicolas sighed in resignation when he saw the scene of destruction around him. In his anger he had unleashed all of his fury in the form of all his unique SSS class skills all at once which had caused this mess. He wasn''t thinking about consequences or wondering if his actions were right or wrong, at the time he was barely thinking at all and this was the result. He destroyed an entire city but he had decided to never return to the bifrost at the time so he hadn''t given a damn at the time. The woman he loved was gone, why would he return to this world? What was that saying? Never say never? Well, it applied now. Dr. Satvik had roped him back in with a lure that he couldn''t deny. Satvik could be lying. He knew that Satvik was capable of many things the least of which was lying to get his way but did he dare take that chance? Can he ignore the possibility of getting his love back , however remote the possibility might be? Satvik had played his card perfectly. He had used the only thing that Nicolas cared about and dangled it in front of his face to force him back into the game and Nicolas had no choice but to follow the piper even though he knew that he would probably drown in the river if he did so. Nicolas shook away these pointless thoughts and left the wreckage of the city to head southwest. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. There were no signs of life around dark moon city. There were no roads leading into or out of the city. It was a solitary existence with nothing but dry cracked land surrounding it. Svatalfheim had another name, the blighted lands. It was the land cursed by the gods and nothing was able to survive there except for the dark elf cities and high leveled monsters. Except for the dark elves cities, Svatalfheim was a forbidden zone where even the bravest guilds feared to venture but Nicolas was strolling through it with impunity. A monster would try to attack him now and then but a simple punch or kick would settle the matter before it even became a problem. Eventually Nicolas found a small black temple exactly where Satvik said it would be. To even call it a temple was a bit of an exaggeration, it was really just four walls and a roof without any decorations or flourishes that were common in other temples. The inside was equally black and equally unimpressive as the outside. The only thing of note was that there was an altar located at the center of the temple that was glowing with an ominous purple light. Nicolas followed Satvik''s instruction and walked up to the alter. He picked up the knife resting there and closed his hand around the blade, savagely cutting into the flesh of his palm. Blood slowly flowed through his fingers and dripped on to the altar. As soon as the first drop of his blood hit the altar, a blue notification screen appeared in front of him.
Are you sure you want to sacrifice your strength to an unknown entity?
Chapter five - when it rains... Chapter five
Are you sure you want to sacrifice your strength to an unknown entity?
There were no explanations, no clarifications or help options, just a simple yes or no question with the consequences being complete unknowns. An ominous evil looking altar in the middle of a sinister little temple located at the center of the blighted lands, a level 450+ area, was giving him an option to ''sacrifice his strength'' to someone or something he didn''t know. The whole thing was extremely suspicious. Hidden content was usually a good thing in games but bifrost was different. If things are hidden then there is a reason that they are hidden. Usually these reasons are quite fatal to the naive user who happened to dig them up. Nicholas wasn''t stupid. He knew that what he was doing was extremely stupid. Normally he would have refused such a choice without even thinking about it but things were different now. Satvik had told him that the only way to access the underworld to rescue Annette is to trigger a certain storyline. He refused to tell Nicholas about any specifics, the only thing he did tell him was about the small temple and how he should apply some of his blood on the altar there. Was it a trap? Was it a trick? It didn''t really matter. Nicholas couldn''t afford to turn this opportunity down to search for another one so he grit his teeth and accepted and when he did, one announcement after another started popping out in quick succession.
WARNING: Your level has been reduced to zero.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
All of your equipment has been unequipped because you fail to meet level requirements.
Because of your betrayal of your oaths to the light gods, you have lost all your powers as a paladin and have been branded an enemy of all the races that fight for good.
Because your actions today have angered the dark gods, you have been branded an enemy of all the races that fight for darkness and evil.
Congratulation! You have been chosen as the champion of a god/goddess!
WORLD WIDE ANNOUNCEMENT : A new deity has risen in the nine realms. This deity is an enemy of both the good and evil races and its only goal is the destruction of everything. A general call to arms has been issued to hunt down this deity''s champion before the new deity can succeed!
What the fuck?! Nicholas couldn''t believe what had just happened. He suddenly became naked and powerless in the middle of one of the highest leveled regions in the game. In addition to that he became the enemy of every player and NPC, both good and evil. What the hell did he just do? Chapter six - screwed Chapter six Nicholas was shocked by the sudden development and his mind just couldn''t comprehend what had just happened. All of the progress he had made, all of the hard work and time he had put into two and a half years of gaming to become the most powerful player in the world, vanished before his eyes. He felt like the rug had been pulled from underneath his feet. He was in that one singular moment of peace before a storm, that one moment where the crowd goes silent before an execution, that one moment when you are in midair, time slows down as the ground rushes towards you and the only thing in your mind just before you inevitably hit the ground is "Oh Shit! This is going to hurt." He was in that moment except multiplied by a million. After a fem minutes, he realized that he had not been breathing since the game had announced his doom so he quickly took a deep breath which calmed him down somewhat. Nicholas knew that he was screwed in the worst way but he finally scrounged up enough courage to see exactly how screwed he was. "User command: Status." When he said one of the few in-game codes that allowed a player to see their status, a semitransparent blue screen appeared in front of him, numerically showing him exactly how screwed he was.
STATUS
NAME Nicholas
Profession N/A Race Barbarian dwarf
LEVEL 0
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
HP 15/15
SP 15/15
MP N/A
STR 15
DEX 15
VIT 15
INT 5
WIS 5
TITLES -Enemy of all living things.
-Champion of the cursed one
SKILLS N/A
Just like he expected, his status was a numerical expression of exactly how screwed he was. He had the stats of a beginner and the enmity of all living things. As for the monsters waiting for him outside, any one of them could kill him by simply sneezing at him a little too hard. Nicholas was lamenting his loss when he suddenly heard a voice in his head. <*yawn* that was a nice nap. Hmmm..are you the one who woke me up?> Chapter seven - shadow Chapter seven <*yawn* that was a nice nap. Hmmm..are you the one who woke me up?> The strange voice was coming from inside of Nicholas''s head and to call the thing he was ''hearing'' a ''voice'' was somewhat of a misrepresentation. Nicholas didn''t actually hear a voice since there was no sound being made at all. The ''voice'' was a direct stream of information that stabbed into Nicholas''s consciousness which struggled to decode the foreign signal then when it failed to find a way to translate the foreign signal, it found the closest equivalent to match the signal and turned it into ''sound'' that was meaningful to Nicholas. Nicholas didn''t know any of this. He just felt like his head was being consumed by fire ants and then he heard something that was a voice and at the same time wasn''t a voice talking to him. Nicholas''s shadow suddenly started to distort and bubble in a very strange way. It slowly transformed from a two dimensional image lying flat on the floor into a three dimensional figure with no discernable features or gender. Nicholas stared at his former shadow with slack jaw amazement, "What are you?" Stolen novel; please report. The answer didn''t come from the shadow but from the voice that wasn''t a voice that was inside of his head. Nicholas remembered the previous announcements and asked, "Are you the new deity? The new god that seeks the destruction of everything?" "Wait, what? This doesn''t sound like a storyline from the game." The shadow suddenly dived into Nicholas''s chest and disappeared into his body. The last thing Nicholas felt before he passed out was an unbearable amount of pain that made him think that his mind was about to explode.