The Eden Crisis

“Sion!” Claire and I say simultaneously. Sion is surprisingly not in the cloak the other Shadow XIII members wear. “I hear you have two original dragon artifacts, Dante,” he says, pointing at me.“I am going to need those from you.”

I ignore him. “Why are you doing this, Sion?” The singer shrugs. “I don’t really want to do it, but Cain asked me and anything he asks, I will do. I owe him that much.” He really is obsessed with Cain. “People are dying, Sion!” I say. “You’re killing innocent people!”

Sion shakes his head. “You just don’t get it, man. The director doesn’t want anyone leaving the game, and as long as Cain is following the director then so am I. Now hand over the artifacts so I don’t have to kill you, too.” I don’t want to do this. I think, why can’t I save him from himself?

I call out my weapon. Claire does the same. “I’ll make this quick, Sion,” I tell him with tears in my eyes. I will free you from the control Cain has on you.” Sion laughs. “I’m under no spell, and you should never judge someone on appearances,” he says, wagging a finger at Claire and me.

He holds his hand up and his weapon of choice appears in his hand. It’s a unique-looking violin. In the other hand is the bow. He positions the violin so he can start playing and stands next to the fountain in the courtyard. “Cain made this violin for me,” he tells us as he starts a melody. “I will honor his gift with your lives!” The melody is a slow tempo that manipulates the water and makes two replicas of him.

The replicas also have instrumental weapons. They both have flutes. “Both of you use serenade of storms!” Sion commands. The two replicas begin playing a melody. It is a medium tempo with occasional fluctuations. Clouds form over us and it begins to rain.

Claire and I hold our weapons tightly. I can tell she is nervous. I need to protect her, so I run toward Sion to take him out before he uses his violin further. Sion is more skillful than the other sirens. He plays a chord and a stream of water jets shoots towards me. It hits me and propels me into the air.

As I fly into the air I see Claire make her own move against Sion. She uses her sword skill called lightning strike. The siren master plays another chord and a jet of water shoots at Claire. I see her smirk. She swings at the water jet, and the lighting energy in her sword connects and surges directly at Sion.

He’s unable to avoid the attack and gets a shock. It does little damage. I land gracefully and with my free hand use an ice spell in an attempt to freeze the pooling water. Sion laughs. “Nice try, Dante,” he says, “but it will take more than a little ice spell to stop my water.” He plays a fast melody that causes the water to heat up. Then he says, “Let’s turn it up a little” and plays another melody. “Dance, water, dance!” Multiple clones of Sion form from the rainfall as the siren continues to play his melody to make the clones do different things.

They outnumber us. There must be a hundred clones. Claire and I attack them in an attempt to wipe them out, but with each clone defeated, a new one takes its place. “Claire, buy me a few seconds,” I yell. I run backward as Claire fights the clones. I place my hands into the water and touch the cobblestone.

A purple glyph appears under the water and light shoots up from it. “Raijin! Judgment stream!” I charge. My great summon appears in the sky. The great bird of thunder soars into the air and gathers energy in its mouth. A large beam of lightning shoots down and eradicates all the clones. Raijin disappears in a brilliance of purple light.

Sion stops playing his melody. “Unexpected,” he says, in what I can only think is one of the better understatements I have ever heard. Claire and I run at him and attack with our swords. His HP falls drastically, and he dismisses his weapon. “Don’t think I’ll need this,” he says, again laconically. He holds a purple stone in his hand. It’s an artifact! “Come out, Jupiter! Show them the colossal strength of storms!” he cries. He jumps backward as a colossal amethyst-colored dragon appears.

I look at Claire. “We can do this, Claire. Let’s finish it.” Claire smiles at me. “Let’s do it, Dante.” We run toward the dragon. Jupiter breathes purple fire at us. I run ahead of Claire and use a strong water spell. The water collides with the fire and creates a screen of steam.

Claire and I use the screen to attack the dragon, which has an elemental weakness to water. This is good for me because I have several water spells. Even Claire has water techniques. I use my magic while she attacks with her sword. I use tidal rift and she uses water strike. Jupiter takes a large amount of damage.

The great dragon retaliates with lightning magic. I attempt to defuse the magic with a spell but the dragon’s attack is too fast. I quickly use a healing spell on Claire and me.

I place a hand on the ground. I half think, half hope this summon will defeat the dragon. A blue circle appears on the ground. Symbols form in the circle and a blue light shines. “Hydra! Tidal wave!” Water shoots from the glyph and floods the area. At once my large dragon-like Entitas leaps out of the water high into the sky.

Hydra lets out a roar and the water, like a tsunami, recedes and pushes toward her. The water climbs high near Hydra then falls back down. The tidal wave rushes through and slams into Jupiter, the great original amethyst dragon.

Jupiter’s HP drops to zero. Sion is standing in the back, shaking his head. “Not over yet,” he says. He begins playing his violin. This melody is different. It’s beautiful and slow. “‘Song of Time’,” he says as he finishes the tune.

That’s when I notice that the dragon is still standing. His HP starts to go back to full. What kind of magic is that? Claire runs past me and uses her best skill, Ragnarok. She slashes the dragon several times.

Jupiter flaps its wings, and the force knocks Claire in my direction. The dragon itself flies into the air. “Colossal storm!” it roars. Large bolts of lightning shoot down from the sky. I hold up my hand and use a magic reflective spell.

My spell is able to deflect some of the magic, but it can’t hold up long to the power of the dragon’s invocation. The dragon lands back on the ground with a crash. “Earth breaker!” I yell, pounding the ground with my fist. The ground breaks apart and flings the dragon back into the air.

What I hoped the attack would do, happened. The water from the storm brought about by the water clones was in the air with the dragon. I hold my hand up. “Absolute zero!” The cold energy of my spell freezes the water, the chunks of earth and the great dragon, which falls to the ground, gravely injured by the attack. The assault continues as lumps of frozen earth and water overwhelm the dragon. It roars loudly as its HP drops low. “Claire, now!” I yell. Claire runs, and with a loud battle cry she slashes the dragon with her holy blade and slays the beast once and for all. Lightning surges from the dragon as it explodes.

Sion seems surprised by our success. He walks toward us with his violin and plays a quick melody. Lightning strikes from the sky and water jets shoot at us. I hold up a hand. “Reflect!” The lightning is bounced back and deflected. The water jets still get us and knock us away.

I heal us and cast a regeneration spell to keep our HP going up. Claire and I run toward Sion. He plays a melody to attack us but we move too fast, as our own attack interrupts his magic.

We each get a hit in on Sion. He backs away from us. “It’s not over yet,” he says. “I’ll do anything to protect Cain!” I shake my head. He is so lost, I think. “He wouldn’t do the same for you, Sion!” I say in an attempt to reason with him. “He’s using you! All of Shadow XIII is using you.”

Sion ignores me and plays another melody. “Dance water!” he charges. Hundreds of water clones appear. They surround us. Claire and I try fighting them off, but there are just too many of them. The clones hit us and keep driving our HP lower and lower.

The many attacks keep me from being able to use magic, so I resort to healing items. Claire is faring better against the clones but not by much. She is swiping through them to get to Sion, but as long as he keeps the song going the clones keep attacking.

As I fight the clones I notice Claire getting knocked down. No! Her HP is falling. I toss a magic crystal to the ground. It shatters and casts a fire spell that disperses some of the clones, but it is too late. “Dante . . .” I hear Claire say with desperation. I watch in horror as her HP hits zero.

My heart drops. No, this can’t happen. Sion is still playing and more clones are appearing. I yell loudly and pound my fists into the ground. A circle of fire surrounds the area. Sion stops playing at the sight of the fire. A flame outline of a bird appears in the circle. “Resurrection flame,” I say weakly. The great large bird known as Phoenix appears and shoots flames all around the courtyard.

Every last clone is destroyed by the attack, including the clone playing the storm song. Even Sion takes severe damage from the Phoenix. But by far the best result is that Claire is restored to full health.

My anger isn’t gone, though. I run toward Sion with my sword and slash at him with blood lust. He is unable to play any songs. I slash him several times until I see his HP drop to zero. I back away and look at him. He looks at his weapon and it shatters before him. He lets out a sound of disbelief and fear. He grabs his head. “No waaay!” he yells before light shoots from his body and he shatters into pieces.

I go to Claire and make sure she’s all right. “Dante, the singing,” she says. The choir of sirens we have been hearing since we got to Sanctum has stopped singing and playing its instruments. The archers who were being controlled have also stopped in their tracks.

Unfortunately, the monsters are still attacking. The dual dome remains in place, so there is more still to do. Luckily the sirens’ song has stopped, so the monsters are all now back to their normal strength, meaning SOLDIER should be able to eliminate the monsters with relative ease.

“Let’s get to the palace and make sure Raziel and everyone else are safe,” I say to Claire. Noticing the amethyst artifact lying on the ground, I pick it up and allow its power to be added to mine. Claire and I then run to the palace.

As we get close, I see Raziel standing on a balcony. He looks down at me. I see him mouth the words, “It will be OK.” His companions Mikael, Gabrielle, Raphael and Lucifer all put their hands on him. A light blue glyph appears in front of Raziel. I don’t recognize the symbols that form inside the glyph. “Shiva, ethereal destruction!” Raziel charges. The glyph glows bright and shoots a blue beam into the air.

The beam rips through the clouds. A woman who looks similar to Lilith but with no armor, Shiva is barely wearing anything. She has white hair instead of blue. She hovers in the air, beating her wings occasionally. She gathers energy into her hand. She launches the energy into the sky, and like the beam from the glyph earlier, it rips through the clouds. In moments, small flares of blue energy shoot down from the sky. The attack only harms the monsters’ enemies in the city.

When the attack is done, Shiva disappears. The dual dome collapses and now the city is safe. I motion for Claire to follow me. We go into the palace and find Raziel. He is in the conference room with his companions Lucien, Cloud, Zack, Apollo and Nero.

Raziel motions for Claire and me to sit. We take a seat at the table. “What happened? Where are Helios and Damon?” I ask. Raziel sighs. “I will explain,” he says, as he tells what happened while Claire and I were fighting Sion.

I was in the throne room with my friends protecting some of the players. Helios and Damon came in into the palace. They offered very little explanation other than that the director wanted me out of the way because of my strength and desire to leave the game.

They attacked me without mercy. They underestimated my skills, though. Damon attacked me with his lance while Helios stayed in the back.

I used my magic and knocked Damon away. Helios and Damon both summoned their dragons due to their possession of the dragon artifacts. They summoned the original ruby dragon called Mars and the original onyx dragon called Malthael.

If it wasn’t for the seal of creation, I probably would have died. “Holy light!” I charged. The dragons were destroyed by my magic. Damon came at me again but I was done playing. My next charge was ethereal beam. A blue beam shot from my hand and hit Damon in the chest. He let out a yell before his body shattered to bits.

Helios attempted to get away, but I used an ice spell and froze him in place, leaving only his head free so he could talk. I walked up to him and used one of my swords rather than the throwing cards. “Is the director behind the hacking? Is he why we are all stuck in the game?” I said.

Helios laughed. “Wouldn’t you like to know,” he said, mocking me. I used my sword and cut through his neck, shattering him and leaving a pile of ice that once were parts of his body.

“They offered very little information to me,” Raziel went on. “Only that the director was against anyone leaving. I think I’m safe in assuming he’s the one who has trapped us all in the game. It’s time to end this. The director resides in Castle Infinity. Need I say more?”

“End it? How is that possible?” Cloud says. “There’s no way to bypass the final ten continents.” Raziel looks out the window as if to think.

He looks back at us. “We will resume this discussion in a moment,” he says. “I have to address the players gathered in Sanctum.” He walks out on the balcony of the conference room, overlooking the town square.

I get up to follow him but stop when I see what he is talking about. There are thousands of players in Sanctum. They are outside the palace awaiting information on what happened.

My friend uses his siren abilities granted from the seal of creation and speaks to everyone. “Friends, family . . . hear me. For over a year now we have fought and died together. Today we fought the one who keeps us here. Today we defeated his assault and today we will end this!” The players yell in excitement, whistle loudly and celebrate Raziel “I want you to all know that I will fight for you till the end!” he say. “Till my final breath, I will fight. I leave you all today to ensure your tomorrow, to ensure you see the real world. You made me your hierarch for a reason, and I thought it was to give hope, but what is hope without action? I haven’t done enough to keep hope alive but know that this day I will surpass hope. I will take away despair!” There is more shouting as Raziel speaks. “Join me in your thoughts as I offer this humble song to honor our fallen.” The crowd of players grows silent. Raziel begins his song, the song his brother taught him many years ago.

As he sings, I see there are tears in the eyes of the players. The song is sad but also soothing. As Raziel finishes the crowd speaks as one. “Fight well and tempt not the fates!” I can’t help but smile at the entreaty.

Raziel comes back in and motions for me to sit as he does the same. Lucien and the others seem impatient. “Well?” Lucien says. Raziel ignores him. “The reason the director is in Castle Infinity and was able to bypass the last ten continents despite the belief of all players that that is impossible, is that like me he knows the one secret of the game that only the creator of the game knows. That is that there are two ways to prove to Veren that you are worthy to face him: the normal way of beating all ninety-nine continents and the secret way only the creator knows, which involves the basement of the library at Indagatus, a fight against a large serpent to gain entrance to the teleportation sphere and finally the fight against Proto Omega, the ultimate Entitas to prove you deserve to go to the castle,” Raziel explains.

“How do you know that, Raziel?” I ask. My friend sighs. “I know that because I saw something in the eyes of Helios and Damon. Their eyes had the celestial seal. That seal belongs to Veren. This part of the story is nowhere in the game. That’s when I knew . . .” he adds with hesitation. “Knew what?” I ask.

Raziel takes a deep breath. “I never told you, my friend, but I didn’t come to this game because I’m such a fan of video games or even because virtual reality was that interesting to me. I came to this game because the story of Eden was identical to the bedtime stories my brother told me.” As he says this, a tear falls from his eye.

“What are you saying?” I ask with a hint of fear in my voice. “I’m saying that the creator of this game is my brother.” I don’t have the words to respond. I am literally struck dumb by Raziel’s revelation.