The Eden Crisis

Six months. All the players of Eden have been in the game for six months. A lot has been accomplished in those six months. After the victory against the first continent Boss, a fire was born in the players.

SOLDIER rallied this fire and used it to push through the continents one by one. In the six months since the start of the life or death Eden, we have managed to get to Continent Thirty Three. Cloud has become the star of SOLDIER—next to Lucien, of course.

My big brother is loved my so many players for his kindness and strength. It makes me happy to know he is doing so much. Claire and I continue to help SOLDIER in their campaign, but we are little in number. We tend to work with one of my closest friends now, Raziel, and his guild the Seraphim Knights.

Apollo and Nero have been doing a lot of work around the game. Due to Apollo’s research, players are saved every day. As Apollo also continues to work at the ancient library in Vetus Silenda, I visit him whenever I get the chance. I’m still so very curious about those three books, but Apollo has yet to get a breakthrough.

Right now I am heading to my place in Convivium. I get stopped by an incoming message. I look at the message; it’s from Claire. Meet at Apollo’s in Vetus Silenda. I sigh. Always direct and to the point.

I go to the Teleportation Sphere and teleport to Vetus Silenda. Not many people live on this continent due to its arid nature. For the most part it is all desert. I make my way to the library where Claire and Apollo are waiting for me.

No monsters are spawning. Nero must have eliminated them completely. I go into the library and to my surprise it is cleaned up. It looks proper rather than ancient and ruined. I can hear talking coming from the direction of the main study.

I knock as I enter the room. My three friends all look and greet me as I come in. I take a seat in one of the armchairs and put my feet up. Claire and Nero take a seat while Apollo gets ready to tell us why we are here.

Apollo stands in front of those three mysterious books we saw months back. “I have finally found the way to open these books,” he says. “It took a few quests, but we finally have the right keys to unlock them.” He points to the book on the left. “The Book of Reaping grants the ability to create a reaper’s seal,” he says. “As I had believed, the seal allows users to assimilate the stats and abilities of weapons and armor, but the assimilated equipment has to be destroyed.”

Damn, that is awesome! I want that seal! Apollo continues to explain all the books to us. The one on the right is The Book of Chaos, and, as he believed, it allows the use of the seal of chaos. With it, it seems users can absorb the effects and powers of all consumable items. Apollo gives as an example a knight with such a seal could absorb magic-crystals magic and gain a spell even though normally a knight can’t use magic.

The final book, The Book of Creation, allows the ultimate seal, the seal of creation, to be made. This seal has the capability of the other two, but it also has a unique capability: It grants the bearer of the seal to be all classes, meaning that whoever has the seal can equip anything.

I realize this is the most amazing ability ever. “Understand, to create the seals is difficult,” Apollo cautions. “You have to have four ingredients to do so and the right level of alchemy, either magic and logic skills. Three of the ingredients for all three seals are dragon’s blood, black oak ash and water from the fountain of creation. The last ingredient is different for each seal. For the reaper’s seal you need the essence of a reaper, for the seal of chaos you need a fruit of chaos and for the seal of creation you need a fruit of life.”

I’ve never heard of the final ingredients. I know the others are hard to find. “Are you going to make us seals?” I ask. Apollo shakes his head. “You will have to bring me the ingredients. I don’t have them. Also, there are players who already have these seals. The books record if someone has activated a seal and the seal of creation has two people while the others each have one.”

I wonder who has the seals. They must be strong players, whoever they are. I remember I still need to meet up with Raziel. There is something he wants to talk about. “Thank you for the information, Apollo,” I say. “I need to go talk with a friend. Will you be at the New Year’s celebration tonight? And you, Nero?”

Nero nods. “Yes. Claire told us about it before you got here. You are putting on a show, right?” I smile. “Yep, it’s going to be a magical evening.” I emphasize “magical.” Claire walks up to me with a frustrated expression. “You better have the show down.” she says. If you go at it half assed I’ll beat you to death!” I roll my eyes. “I’m stronger than you,” I remind her, half teasing. I teleport out before she can give a comeback.

Raziel is on Continent Twenty Five. It’s a watery land that was once the nation of Atlantis before Veren tore Eden apart. It is the current home of the Seraphim Knights. They are on a short holiday break, but Raziel has stayed behind. From my understanding, Raziel is not a fan of the winter holidays.

I walk up to him but do not disturb him as he is singing to himself while watching the sun on the horizon. It is a hypnotic song. It is sad sounding yet also strangely soothing. Raziel notices me and stops singing. He smiles sheepishly. “I didn’t know you were there,” he says. I sit down next to him. “That was a beautiful song. I’ve never heard it before.”

“My mother or brother sang it to me, though my brother is the one who made it up.” He has a brother? I didn’t know that. I wonder if he is playing the game as well.

“It’s an awesome song, very soothing,” I say. Raziel laughs. “That was the effect of the Siren-class influence,” he says. Siren class? He isn’t a Siren class.

“You aren’t a siren class,” I say. “You’re a sorcerer/ninja class.” My friend smirks. “I’m a little more than that.” He lifts his shirt up to reveal a tattoo on his slightly muscled abdomen. Wait! That mark! Is that the seal of creation? There is a black swirl around his belly button and Eden script surrounding the swirl in a perfect circle with branches of more script.

Raziel puts his shirt down. “You know that marking, don’t you?” I nod. “Yes,” I say. “That is the seal of creation. How did you get it? And when?”

“I received the power of the seal a few months ago. I had the ingredients, so I placed the seal on myself.” Awesome. Raziel is even cooler than I thought. “Can you make me one?” I ask. Raziel looks down. “I’m afraid not,” he says.” Once you make a seal, you can’t make another until you lose the seal you made.” How do you lose the seal? I wonder. I tell myself it’s not important.

Raziel points to the horizon. “The horizon makes me think of my brother,” he says wistfully. His eyes have the horizon’s red and gold glow. Some would call it a birth defect, but in truth to have eyes like that is a gift. I wish mine, which are merely crystal blue, looked like that.

“Is your brother in the game?” I ask. Raziel shrugs. “I’m not sure. In truth, I haven’t seen my brother in ten years.” What? “Ten years ago last week, my mother died of a very rare genetic disease. When that happened, my grandparents took me in, but they didn’t want my brother, so he had to go live with his father. I say his father because we have different dads. Mine is gone from this world.” No wonder he doesn’t like the holidays. How does he always appear so calm and seemingly happy?

“I’m sorry,” I say. “Not to have seen your brother in all this time is horrible.” Raziel laughs at my words. “It’s OK. It’s ten years in the past. I only think about it around the holidays. My brother loved Christmas and New Year’s. I wish he were here, of course. I wish I knew what he looked like all grown up. For that matter, I may have seen him and not even known it.” I clasp Raziel’s shoulder in support. He is a great friend. When we get out of the game, we will continue our friendship. He lives near St. Louis, where I live.

He brushes blond locks from his eyes. “Enough of that,” he says. “Do you want to do a quest with me tomorrow?” I nod enthusiastically. “Definitely. What quest is it?”

“It’s a quest for a new summoning. In it, we both can get a new, stronger power. This particular summoning provides the ultimate healing but also attacks the enemy. It is known as the Phoenix. Mythology teaches that the Phoenix has healing properties so powerful they can even reverse death.”

It all sounds awesome. I definitely need that kind of summoning. “Sounds incredible, man,” I say. “I need to go to Convivium for the New Year’s party that Claire’s throwing tonight. I know you hate the holidays, but will you join us?” To my happy surprise, Raziel says yes. We stand up and walk to the Teleportation Sphere where we teleport to the second continent.

As we walk to where the celebration is going to be, we talk about different things. The topic of his brother comes up again, and I decide to ask him a question that’s been on my mind. “So what is your brother’s name?” Raziel keeps staring ahead. “Why do you want to know?” he asks.

“Curiosity, mostly, but also a sense of duty as your friend.” A slight smile appears on his face. I can tell he appreciates my words. “My brother’s name is—″

Raziel is interrupted by Claire running up and yelling out our names. We both look at her as she almost trips and falls. I could have used the laugh.

“Finally, you are here!” she shouts. “I didn’t think you were coming, and I would have killed you if you hadn’t. These people are expecting a show.” I roll my eyes. “Yeh, yeh, yeh,” I say. “I’m here now. I’ll go and get ready. Take Raziel with you.” I head for the area where I will be using magic to give the fireworks show.

I had to equip a few pieces of armor to allow for dark magic, which, under normal diviner-class circumstances, I can’t use. It will be an awesome show. I just hope we have a large turnout. I’ve heard a lot of talk around Eden about the show, so I think there will be a sizable number of people.

I wait for the sun to set, which should be any second. I wish Claire hadn’t interrupted earlier. I almost got Raziel’s brother’s name. Oh, well. It can wait. The sun dips below the horizon, and it is time. One of our Siren-class guild members makes a sound crack in the sky to signal everyone that the show is ready. The place is standing room only.

I charge an explosive spell. “Fire Storm!” A stream of fire shoots into the air. I charge another explosive spell. “Flare Bomb!” It flies into the air and hits the stream with a bang. Fire flares shoot all over the sky. I can hear people cheering.

“Let’s try to get more artistic,” I say to myself.” I gather energy in both hands. I release a water spell and a lightning spell. The lighting scatters the water in a cool, understated way and lights the sky. I charge another spell. “Ice Strike!” A beam of ice freezes the water and lightning in place, causing the crowd to go crazy.

“Flare!” I charge. I shoot a ball of energy into the frozen water and lightning, and it explodes in a fury of light. The crowd roars. I continue to do magic for the next hour until I run out of my MPs, or magic points.

The rest of the evening comprises a party for everyone. On this night everyone puts their differences aside and are just people and not players of a killer video game. Everyone is enjoying the night and for a short time forgets the troubles of the game.

Even Raziel seems to be enjoying himself though he is still as reserved as always. I see Cain talking with my twin brother. Is that Vergil laughing? I don’t believe it. He hates Cain. I walk over to them. Cain sees me approaching and by my guess says goodbye to my brother.

“Brother, were you and Cain laughing it up? I definitely didn’t expect that.” Vergil smiles broadly but sheepishly. “Believe it or not, he’s actually a decent guy. I’ve gotten to know him the last few months.”

“Just be weary of him,” I say. “He is called the Weaver of all Schemes for a reason.” Vergil nods in understanding. “Thanks. And that was a great show you put on. Where did you get the dark magic?”

“I have accessories that grant dark magic though it is weaker because I am a Diviner.” I can see that Vergil is impressed. He then spots Cloud and Zack in the distance talking and motions for me to follow him.

We talk with the two and see what they are up to. Cloud seems to be annoyed by the interruption. Zack tells us about the big mission to fight the next boss. Cloud rolls his eyes at his friend’s word heave. “Are you done telling them all of SOLDIER’s plans?” he says, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Zack frowns. “What’s up your butt, pal? No need to be so cynical. Lucien never gave any orders to not talk about our missions. Besides, Dante and Vergil are in the guilds that join us in the missions.” Cloud seems to relent. “Whatever.”

I see Apollo and Nero talking by the food table. Nero is eating a lot of food. I walk over to them. I grab a drink and take a seat next to Apollo. “Enjoying the party?” I ask. Apollo laughs. “Yes, it’s a great party. It makes me feel young again. You can see everyone enjoying themselves. They’ve forgotten for a moment that they’re trapped in a game.”

“I guess not you, though,” I say with a chuckle. “No, I haven’t, but that doesn’t keep me from having a good time. As you can see, Nero’s also enjoying himself. He loves the food.” I look over at Nero, who is still stuffing his face, and then back at Apollo. “Duly noticed.”

“Has your guild discovered who is behind everything Dante?” Apollo asks. I sigh. I really don’t want to think about this for at least one night. “I can’t say that we have,” I say. “We can only assume it is a player, but there is no obvious person. Have you?” Apollo takes a sip from his glass. . “I believe I have narrowed down the possibilities.” Really? He thinks he knows who is behind the hack on Eden?

“Who do you think it is?” I ask. He takes another swig of his drink. “There is the obvious—Lucien.” That one takes me by surprise. Apollo “He is the owner of Dignitas, and he is failing as a leader. To put it bluntly, he is not his father. Eden bailed him out slightly. He could be looking for a way to make himself look good.” It’s possible, I say to myself, but I doubt it.

“Think about it,” Apollo says. “He shows up when the data anomaly attacks us. Maybe he only saved us to look good or maybe because his sister was there and in danger.” He makes sense, but I still don’t know. “What about the other person or people you think may have done the hacking?” I say.

“The director of Shadow XIII,” he replies. “What is really known about him? He is one big mystery, and shortly after this hacking occurs and we are all trapped, he reorganizes Shadow XIII. It just seems too coincidental to ignore.” I begin to wonder if Apollo has had too much to drink. There is no proof for either claim.

“It’s definitely something to think about, Apollo,” I say, “and I appreciate that. I’m going to go find some more people to talk to. Enjoy the rest of the evening—and do yourself a favor and lay off that wine.” Apollo lets out a laugh, and I walk off toward Raziel. But Claire grabs me before I can get to him. She looks amazing. She is in a gown for the night, and it is beautiful. She went all out to look good for the party.

“Dante, dance with me?” she says. It’s a waltz, so I put one hand on her waist and take her other hand in mine. I’m glad Cloud made me take lessons when I was younger. We dance slowly in rhythm to the music. Claire smiles. “Are you blushing, Dante?” I feel the heat rise to my cheeks.

I try to laugh it off. “No. I . . . must be a graphic glitch.” Claire laughs softly. “Of course, it must be a graphic glitch. What else could it be?”

The music changes from a waltz to a simple melody. Claire puts hers arms around my neck, and I put my hands on her waist. “Don’t think anything of it, but I’m going to rest my head on your shoulder, she says. I manage to hold in a smile. “Go for it,” I say quietly. Claire lays her head on my shoulder, and we dance, slowly.

As the song comes to an end Claire lifts her head up. “I guess that’s enough dancing for the night. I’ll see you later, Dante. Thank you.” She pulls away and walks off to converse with others.

I finally join Raziel at the table. “Dante, that was a magnificent show,” he says. “No doubt about it, it was well worth coming to.” “Of course,” I say, “any show I put on is going to be awesome.” Raziel rolls his eyes. “Ever the humble one,” he says with a grin.

I tell him I’m glad he’s enjoying himself. “The holidays are meant to be happy,” I say. We continue to talk for a few more minutes about tomorrow. Raziel eventually leaves to sleep. Despite the fun he had at the party, I can tell he’s in a sour mood.

I’m pretty tired myself. I find Claire to say goodbye. She is talking with her brother and my brothers. I walk up to them and she greets me. “I was wondering where you went, Dante. The show you put on was amazing.” I thank her for her kind words. “I’m going to go. I’m pretty tired. I just wanted to let you guys know I’m leaving for the night.” Vergil and Cloud give me a hug. Claire gives a smile. “See you tomorrow,” I say. “I am doing a quest with Raziel, actually. Feel free to join us.” Claire sighs. “That’s OK. Have fun with Raziel.”

I go back to my apartment, completely drained from everything today. I fall asleep quickly and enter into the land of dreams.

I’m standing on a platform surrounded by darkness. A small light shines above me. I can see specks of light in the space above me. Am I outside? I look around and see a hooded figure with two swords in his hands.

“Who are you?” I ask. The figure runs toward me and slashes his weapons in my direction. I fall out of the way—literally falling down—and get lucky not being hit. I try to open my inventory but am unable to.

“Having trouble, hero?” The figure comes at me again. He throws one of his swords at me. I run toward it and catch it with my left hand. “Think fast, hero!” The mystery opponent swings his other sword. I block his attack and push him away. “Who are you?” I yell. He laughs. “Me? I am those you will fail.” His voice begins to get deeper. “I am those who will be filled with despair.” The voice changes to a feminine tone. “I am those whom you love that will die!” He moves quickly and attacks relentlessly. My sword is knocked from my hand.

The figure kicks me in the chest, and I fall to the ground. He steps on me and holds his (or is it her?) sword high. “It ends now hero!” He brutally brings the sword down to my chest, but I wake before it hits me.

I leap up in bed, breathing heavily. I look around and it is still dark. “What was that?” I fall onto the bed and close my eyes so I can once again sleep. I surprisingly fall back to sleep, but as morning wakes me I realize how little sleep I got.

I change from my basic clothing to my battle clothing. It’s time to meet up with Raziel. We’re teleporting to Continent Thirty One. Raziel is sitting next to the Teleportation Sphere. I walk up and we greet each other. “Ready for the quest, my friend?” Raziel says.

“Definitely. Let’s get going.” We teleport to Thirty One, and I am impressed by the scenery. I’d actually never been here before. When SOLDIER was doing the campaign, I was doing summoning quests. Raziel tells me this continent in the game’s history is part of Silva Regnum, a forested kingdom that was an ally of the Kingdom of Hullez.

I can see the Phoenix tower in the distance. We begin our trek to get to it, where one of the strongest summonings resides. The monsters in the forest are a lot stronger than I expect. Fortunately, we can handle them.

As we walk through the forest, killing monsters that appear at random, Raziel talks about the tower. “It wasn’t always called, that according to a book I read at the library in Indagatus,” he says. “The original name has been lost since the time when the continents were all one. The tower served as an outpost where the Kingdom of Hullez guarded over the Nation of Silva Regnum. They were allies in times of old. It now stands as a glimmer of the past. Inside is a former protector of Hullez and Silva Regnum, the Phoenix, the Knight of the Eternal Flame.