The Eden Crisis

Today is the day I participate in the Platinum Tournament. Vergil more or less forced me into joining his team, which consists of Vergil, Asher and me. There are seven teams in all. The seventh team goes to round two automatically. The seventh team has one member: Cain and Cain alone. He won the last Platinum Tournament two months ago, and as winner gets to bypass the first round.

I walk through the streets of Convivium. The tournament starts in twenty minutes. As I walk down the streets I can see Nero and Apollo walking toward the coliseum. I run up and greet them. We talk for a few minutes.

“Are you in the tournament today, Dante?” Apollo asks me. I nod. “Yes, Vergil forced me in. Are the two of you in the tournament?”

“I am,” says Nero. “Apollo will be watching.” We walk into the coliseum, and Apollo leaves us to go to the stands. We walk into the fighters’ waiting room. The first teams will be fighting soon.

I look around at the other teams. There is the team I am in. Nero seems to be going at this alone. There is Lucien’s team; my brother is joining him. There is the team composed of Siren-class players. It looks as if Claire and two of her guild members are also fighting.

I see but don’t recognize the last team. Speaking of Cain, who is that talking to him? I’m pretty sure Cain is by himself. The guy speaking to him has light-brown hair that falls to just above his shoulders. The hair is styled in a pretty cool way.

His armor is even cooler. It’s leather and tight. It shows off his torso really well. One arm is covered by the leather while the other remains bare. The colors are perfect—red, gold and black. Like Cain, he also wears gloves.

I nudge Nero and motion toward Cain. “Who is that talking to Cain?” Nero smiles respectfully. “That’s Noel. He is number eleven in Shadow XIII. He acts as right-hand man to Cain. He is a strong player.”

Noel, right hand to Cain? “I’ve never noticed him before,” I say. “He must not be much of a right-hand man.” Nero laughs lightly. “Noel is always in the shadows. If you see him, you won’t be alive much longer.”

That makes sense, I think. As I wait for my tight-lipped twin to talk more about his guild, Claire walks over to us. Nero waves goodbye and walks off to strategize for the tournament.

Claire gives me a friendly punch on the shoulder. “Ready for the tournament?” she says. I rub my shoulder. “Yeah, are you? Think you can beat your brother?” I stress “brother” to mess with her. She smirks and shakes her head. “Still not over that, huh?”

I laugh. “Just joking, Claire. Good luck. It will be fun to fight you.” Claire laughs and shouts as I walk away, “You’re gonna lose when we fight!”

I sit with Vergil and Asher. They are talking strategy. My wonderful twin tells me my job is purely to heal. You can imagine my lack of enthusiasm. All that work put in on my new offensive spells, and now Vergil says I’m only there to heal.

I have three new spells. One is an upgraded healing spell, but the other two are offensive spells—a light spell and a level-two water spell. Asher and Vergil are the attackers. I think that my brother underestimates my skills.

Yggdrasil has two unique sword skills—Flame Slash and Revival Storm. I love them both. Revival Storm heals all players after an attack on the enemy. Flame Slash is a two-hit attack empowered by fire, making it a fire elemental skill. Oh, crap; I realize Vergil and Asher are staring at me. They are expecting me to say something.

I nod quickly. “Yes.” Asher and Vergil look at one another. “Yes? You want to lose?” they say. “No! I’m sorry . . . I wasn’t listening.” Asher laughs, and Vergil rolls his eyes.

Vergil puts his hands on my face and makes me look at him. “Listening, bro?” he says. I nod a little, as he is holding my head tightly. “Good. We are going to win. Use your healing and defensive magic. If the moment calls for it, use your offensive magic. We are going against the Sirens first, so let’s get this win,” he says. He kisses my forehead.

I follow him out to the arena. All three of us stand in position and wait as the Siren team comes out. The announcer introduces our team and the Sirens’ team.

“When the countdown hits zero, you may start,” the announcer says. “Fight well, players, and tempt not the fates.” The phrase of Eden, fight well and tempt not the fates. I don’t really understand it. How can you fight and not tempt at the same time?

The countdown begins. Five. My twin has his hands ready at his swords. Four. Our opponents are smirking at us. Three. Asher balls his fists. Two. The crowd is dead silent. One. I take a breath. Zero. Vergil and Asher take off toward our opponents. I hold my hand up. “Barrier!” I cast the defensive magic around all three of us.

All three of the Siren players let out a loud shriek. I place my hands on the ground. “Earth Spike Wall!” The spell shoots across the ground and a wall shoots up in front of my brother and Asher. The wall slides toward the enemy and intercepts the sound blast.

The wall inevitably shatters and crumbles to the ground, but my brother and Asher are safe. Vergil pulls out his swords and uses his twin-slash technique on one of the players. Asher throws one of his ninja weapons, a chakram.

The weapon flies across the arena and nails the same player Vergil had hit. The player screams and shatters. Another Siren pulls out a flute and begins playing a melody. Asher grabs his head in agony from the pain the melody creates with its magic.

I hold up my hand to cast a healing spell to help Asher, but the Siren snaps his fingers and a sound wave erupts in my direction. The blast breaks my spell.

Vergil hurls his swords into the air and wrenches out a scroll from his belt. He unrolls it. “I seek the energy that shakes the earth!” he roars. Green energy shoots from the scroll into the ground.

The arena begins to shake. The spell from the scroll causes the Siren with the flute to stop playing. My brother catches his kodachis and slices through the neck of the Siren without the flute, who shatters into nothing.

The last Siren growls and plays a harsh melody on his flute. Lightning bolts shoot from the top of the arena toward us. I race past Vergil and Asher and go for the last player. The lightning seems to be within striking distance of us.

I call up sword skill and release. “Revival Storm!” The Siren looks deathly frightened as my attack connects. The lightning surges through all of us but my attack counters the effects of the magical damage.

The several slashes my skill carries out eliminate the final Siren. Music rises in the arena, and the announcer begins to speak. “Team Vergil is the winner! They will go on to the second round. Team Lucien versus Team Michael is next. Will both teams please enter the arena?”

Vergil, Asher and I teleport out of the arena and back into the waiting room. We make our way to the stands and pass by Lucien, my brother Cloud and his friend Zack.

We sit in the stands and wait for the next match to start. I am certain Lucien’s team will win. His strength is unreal. He destroyed that data anomaly. Apollo was using strong, high-level magic that had no effect, but Lucien destroyed it.

Since that day there have been other reported anomalies, but Lucien has assured all the players the situation has been resolved.

The teams teleport into the arena. The countdown hits zero. The fight is short to say the least. All three members of Team Lucien are ridiculously strong. They wipe out the opposing team until only the leader, Michael, is left standing.

He is a Lancer-Sorcerer mix. He is putting up a fight, but it isn’t long before Lucien and the others wipe him out as well. Music sounds in the arena and Cloud’s team teleports out.

Claire and Nero are next. The two meet in the arena for the last fight of round one. Apollo walks up to me and sits down. “I am excited for this fight,” he says. “Nero needs a challenge, and Claire is going to give it to him.”

“Claire won’t lose,” I say. “She is feisty.” Apollo laughs at me. “You might be right; we’ll find out.”

As the countdown begins, I can see the excitement in Nero and Claire. They want to fight. Claire wants to prove herself, and Nero wants to finish what he started a week ago.

The clock hits zero and the two charge at one another. Their swords clank and clatter and crash in a blinding shower of sparks. Their fight is amazing. They seem evenly matched. Either one, I think, can win this.

They simultaneously use sword skills that clash in an incredible explosion. The smoke from the blast clears, and each is locked in position trying to overpower the other.

They jump backwards away from one another, again calling up their sword skills. Claire is faster and runs toward Nero. “Ragnarok!” she yells and attacks her foe. He flies into the air from the force of the attack. Claire slashes at him several more times.

She lets out a shriek, and beams of energy shoot from her sword. As they blast Nero, she finishes her attack with a final slash, and he shatters into nothingness. Victory music plays, and Claire teleports from the arena. Everything that just happened is beyond me right now. What was that attack she did? Whatever it was, it was phenomenal.

Apollo and I go to the locker room to meet up with Claire and Nero. I can see them ahead. To my surprise, they are laughing. I didn’t think Nero could laugh. He is very cold usually.

“Thank you for the great fight, Claire,” he says. “Who would have known you had the legendary Excalibur sword.” Excalibur? I remember reading something about that sword in the game’s legends, that there is a onetime chance to get the sword until the sword is stolen or upgraded to the next level.

That means that only one person can have the sword at one time. Claire has it and is fortunate to have it. Nero walks by and by way of acknowledgment taps me on the shoulder as he goes to Apollo.

I give Claire a thumbs up. “You were awesome in there,” I say. Claire smiles at me. “Thank you. You were good in your fight, too. You saved your team. I hope that you will fight just as strongly when we meet in the next round. Lucien and his team are fighting Cain, and I am fighting you guys.” Damn, I think. I don’t want to fight Claire. I don’t think I can beat her. I will definitely need to use an examination crystal.

She pulls me with her to the stadium seats. Apparently, Lucien is fighting Cain in the first match of the second round.

I am excited! I want to see Cloud and Lucien in action. Claire and I take our seats and wait for the competition to start. Apollo and Nero sit next to us.

The odds for Lucien are short. His team is the favorite to win the tournament. However, I have seen Cain in action and he is beyond measure. There is so much I still don’t know about him or any of the Shadow XIII members. Vergil is discreet about them.

I nudge Clair and she looks at me with annoyance. “What?” she says, as much with her expression as with words. “The match is about to start.”

“I just want to know if you know anything about Shadow XIII and my brother’s history. He won’t tell me a thing.” Claire looks confused. “Why the hell are you asking me about this now?” she asks with annoyance.

“It’s been bugging me for a while, and this fight that is going to happen is bringing those thoughts back. Do you know anything, or not?” Claire sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. “One, you should be asking Vergil and not me. Two, I don’t know anything beyond the rumors floating around the game, those rumors being that Cain betrayed the guild for personal gain, which, personally, given his friendship with Noel and Lyken, I really doubt. Just ask Vergil if you’re so damn curious.”

Easier said than done, I thought. Vergil refuses to say anything about his time with the guild. Apollo leans toward me. “I couldn’t help but overhear you.” He opens his inventory and pulls out a book. “I wrote this in the game book. It’s about all the guilds, including Shadow XIII, which is somewhere in the middle. I’ve got several copies, so you can keep this one.”

I want to read the book now but the round is starting. My brother looks so awesome down there. Cain is standing opposite him and the others with his arms crossed. He is leaning against the wall of the arena so casually that he looks as though this fight doesn’t concern him. How is he so confident?

The announcer gives fantastic intros for both teams, but it is obvious how much he favors Lucien’s team. The countdown begins. Lucien and his team have their weapons ready, and Cain is still leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and eyes closed.

The counter hits zero, and Lucien, my brother and Zack charge Cain. The member of Shadow XIII finally eases off the wall and waits for the attack. It comes, and all three of their attacks slide right through Cain.

Lucien growls and attacks again. He slashes several times and each one goes through Cain. The head of SOLDIER jerks backward. “How are you doing this?” This must be some kind of hack!” Lucien says. Cain laughs. “Are you paranoid, or what? My armor allows for this ability. It’s all in the game. There’s a flaw in it, but it’s one you must discover for yourself.”

Cain holds up a hand. “Shadow Lightning!” Black lightning shoots from his hand. Cain holds his other hand lower and to the side to shoot more black lightning toward the others. Lucien blocks the attack with his sword, but this form of defense isn’t as good as a shield or magic.

Zack and Cloud jump out of the way. Lucien yanks out a scroll and opens it up. “I seek the dark destructive energy! Shadow Flare!” A dark ball of energy shoots through the air and passes through Cain, who pulls out a scythe and attacks Lucien directly.

The leader of SOLDIER jumps backward to avoid more damage. He yells something to Cloud and Zack, and they all go into their inventory and get small crystals. All three of them throw the crystals down and when they shatter magic spells are cast.

All three spells go right through Cain as if they were nothing. He charges a spell in his hand. “Absolute Zero!” The air around the arena begins to freeze. The duel dome separating us from the arena is becoming frozen.

Minutes pass and I can’t see anything. What is going on down there? Finally, something is happening. The ice is clearing. It looks as if another magic crystal was used. Zack is on one knee while Cloud and Lucien are fighting Cain in close combat.

Cain is using his scythe now instead of magic. Even if they can get a hit in it will still go right through Cain. The fighting is remarkable. Cain is summoning up a skill. He twirls and uses his whirlwind slash attack. It propels Cloud and Lucien onto their heels.

Lucien is holding a crystal. He throws it to the ground, and when it shatters it casts a holy spell. The spell soars through the air and hits Cain! The spell actually connects! Lucien attacks him with his sword and takes a decent amount of HP from him.

Cain chuckles. “You have found the weakness of my armor but it will not help you win this fight.” Cain holds up his free hand. “Soul Harvest!” Green energy swirls around the arena and absorbs the HP of Lucien, my brother and Zack.

Cain’s HP heals completely! He charges Zack and hits him. He immediately shatters and is teleported from the arena. Cloud and Lucien use potions to heal themselves. Cloud runs toward Cain. He is calling up a skill as he runs. Cain chuckles and holds his position.

Cloud uses his skill. “Creation Slash!” A look of surprise shoots across Cain’s face. The attack connects and propels Cain into the air. My brother proceeds to slash Cain an additional eight times.

Cain hits the ground hard and Cloud lands gently. The scythe- wielder stands up, laughing. “Wonderful!” He makes a second scythe appear, which floats around him. He can wield two scythes?

Cain charges Cloud and Lucien. He propels them into the air with a whirlwind slash and then uses a skill I’ve never seen before. “Final Reaping!” Cain slashes through the two teammates several times and ends the match. They shatter mid-air.

The match is over! What is that skill? It was so powerful. I don’t have time to ask Apollo. The announcer summons the next teams into the arena. Claire and I both go to the team waiting areas. She goes off to her room and I meet up with Vergil and Asher.

My twin puts a hand on my shoulder. “We can do this,” he says with either confidence or hope; I’m not sure which. “Claire is strong but we can beat her.” I nod in agreement, and we teleport into the arena. The crowds are cheering for both teams. Claire is clearly the popular choice, though.

Everyone is so pumped by what is happening. Cain has defeated not only three people but Lucien included, of all people. The countdown begins and we wait. Claire has her sword ready. My brother and Asher have smirks on their face.

The countdown hits zero, and they charge quickly. I get an examination crystal out of my inventory and use it on Claire. Her information shows before my eyes. All of her equipment in Holy Dragon equipment, and she also has a regenerative ring that heals her continually. Finally, her ultimate weapon, Excalibur, grants her great strength.

I realize I will be of no use in this fight. “Guys! Her skills are all holy based!” I yell. “I can’t do anything except heal. Her armor increases her speed in battle and she will constantly heal during the fight. You guys need to use dark-based skills to beat her!”

Claire brings up a skill. “Holy Slash!” She hits Asher and knocks him backward. Vergil clashes swords with her. While they fight I go to Asher and heal him. I quickly cast a barrier on Vergil and Asher.

There must be a way for us to win. Do I have anything that can help? Wait! I do! “Vergil, Asher!” I say. “Hold her off for ten seconds while I get something from my inventory!” They nod and fight her together.

I get what I need and run toward them. Claire knocks them back with one of her skills. I toss a scroll each to them and simultaneously use a healing spell. “Use those when the time is right,” I say, speaking of the scrolls.

I run to Claire and take her head on. We clash swords. I call up a sword skill. “Sonic Slash!” A blast wave hits her hard, but she only laughs and uses her ultimate technique, Ragnarok.

She knocks me into the air and slashes me several times before her attack finishes me off. I shatter and teleport out of the arena. She turns to fight my teammates but it’s too late for her now. They have all they need.

They both open the scrolls. “We offer up this seal to unleash the power of the dragon that envelops Hell!” they say in unison. “Combine together to form into Malthael!” Black smoke discharges from the scroll and surrounds the two. Claire backs away in caution.

She stands in position to wait for the next move. A large black claw shoots out from the smoke and slashes at her. She barely dodges the attack. Shock fills her eyes as an enormous black dragon storms from the smoke and breathes jet-black fire at her.

Claire takes the hit and loses a significant portion of her HP. The dragon is too fast for her to counter. “You lose, Crescent!” it roars. It brings forth a beam in its mouth and shoots it at Claire.

She is unable to dodge the attack and shatters when her HP hits zero. The dragon fades to black and leaves only my twin and Asher behind. The shocked announcer declares our victory, and we winners are teleported from the arena.