Pantheon Online

303  Rise of the True Gods (Part 1)

A few days later, a fan of Ragnarok sat on a chat site for Pantheon Online. Concern grew in his mind as he read through the latest chat thread.

What's going on in Pantheon Online?

-Yo, does anyone know what's been going on in the game? It's been crazy lately!

-Yeah, the Redfist Pantheon was annihilated by a single player! Even their leader, who was Tier 2!

-That's insane! -Totally!

-Yeah, but what about what happened in Elvahen? The Eldens' country? A new Pantheon was created, and they started a massacre! Everyone's saying they're trying to wipe out every Pantheon there!

-Damn! That's hardcore!

-I saw that! Apparently, several teams are going to band together to fight them!

-That fight will be epic!

-Hoho, you peasants know nothing! There are super powerful low Tier players appearing in the game now. If you watch enough streams, you'll notice they're doing something strange. I'm thinking the game has been hacked!

-No way!

-You're full of it!

-I'm telling you the truth!

-The hell?! You mean...the entire game is being manipulated?! How can someone do this? Are we playing against bots? No way! We could never beat these guys at this rate.

-Of course, we couldn't. And besides, if this player or group knows their stuff, they might have some information on how to protect themselves. I should look into this myself.

-Yeah, right. Sure. Go ahead, genius. Make a fool of yourself. Who's stupid enough to take you seriously when you try to bluff like this?

-You're so confident in your intelligence! Why would anyone think you know anything?

-Shut up and listen! It's simple! The best time to take advantage of this is after the other teams are finished fighting and start making deals with one another.

-What are you talking about, idiot?! They won't trust each other now that the game is completely different than before! Everyone's scared they'll be targeted by the new players who've just come along!

-Then, they need to be cautious of newbies!

-Bullshit! Everyone is still struggling to understand all of their new powers! Besides, they're not even aware of who those newbies are! n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

-I am! Let me introduce you to a player named Colt Anderson! He's Tier 2 now, but even he got his ass handed to him! Check out Ragnarok's stream for the footage.

-That's the guy everyone was complaining about last week. Hahaha... I thought I'd heard the end of it. I was wrong. Look at the date! Only three days ago. I knew something was going on in Pantheon Online! Now, it looks like things really did change. That dumbass got lucky! Another player wiped them out with only one attack spell? You should have seen how many times we hit her before we died, man! We used over ten spells to get them down to half health. We lost five of our people in the fight too! We didn't lose because we are bad fighters. She just happened to be better than us. But we still don't know how she did certain things. All these new players probably unlocked powerful Authorities! It's the only explanation. They're definitely not bots.

-Are you serious?! You're admitting your team was wiped out by a newbie?

-I'm not lying! There were six players from my team there, and four more from another one. She was all alone, but we were totally helpless! If she didn't let the rest of us escape, it would've been a complete wipe!

-Oh yeah, tell me about that! What do you mean, exactly?

-You see when that enemy player killed all of Redfist, the rest of the teams left as soon as possible to make deals with whoever was left standing or to convince the others to join forces against this player. So we tracked her down, but it was pointless. Man, I really wanted the rewards the joint Pantheons came up with for killing her.

-So what did happen then? How'd they manage to kill someone who is supposed to be so strong?

-They ambushed her! We saw everything on Redfist's stream! Once they revived, they went looking for her. The moment they caught sight of her they started casting their spells without hesitation! Even their Leader threw everything he had at her! She tried, but it wasn't enough! When she ran away they pursued her relentlessly! And they kept chasing her through a valley where some other newbie took care of her. That kid said he only got lucky in killing her. He had his hands full though, the woman was pretty tough. My guess is he might be the same as these other weird players popping up...

-You idiot! You can't even remember your own name...you just want to believe any bullshit anyone tells you! Don't forget how we ended up losing that fight because you decided to retreat instead of fighting to win, fool!

-Shut your face, you jerk! It's true, isn't it? It looked like she cast an attack spell and she couldn't move afterwards! Her entire body froze stiff and she dropped dead instantly. Look, it's right here on Redfist's stream! Check it out for yourself if you don't believe me! Everyone knows that other newbie did something to her!

-How are we supposed to trust something you say?! There's no way those weird new players are actually going out there attacking each other! They're probably using cheats or something similar! I've seen plenty of people playing this game complain about getting killed by things they never encountered before. There's no reason why everyone has to jump on the bandwagon without trying anything themselves first.

-I'm telling you the truth! She wasn't killed with magic! Then there was that group of kids we ran into yesterday! Those kids were all terrified! But when they saw us coming at them, one girl raised a hand, and all hell broke loose. She didn't use fire, instead, she threw ice shards everywhere at lightning speed. They came at us from impossible angles! That little brat made our whole team useless! We could barely even dodge her attacks as we ran away from her. All six of my men died after taking too many hits. The four guys from another team who went along with it were a bit lucky though, two escaped with minor wounds, but the others got ripped apart while running away. It's only because their leader fought back so fiercely that we survived.

-Are you seriously saying that children beat your entire team? You must have been drunk for sure!

-They weren't that strong! Our leader took care of that brat before we escaped, and that kid said his other friends had already defeated five other players and he would take care of us all when he respawned! How can you defeat someone if they're stronger than you and you don't know what's going on? If he was telling the truth then he's pretty powerful! -And it looks like you're not willing to do anything to find out more about what they did to beat you guys. Let me give you some advice: Don't believe everything you hear. It'll be some kind of trick. You just need to figure it out, and you'll be able to defeat them.

Colt leaned forward in the chair, furrowing his brow. "Why am I getting messages about this?"

Mike sighed from the chair on the opposite side of his brother's desk. "We can't ignore these chat room screenshots we keep getting sent. Something massive is going on in the game, and I can't plan to counter it without the details. Why won't you tell me what happened to you? I've seen the streams, but I think you know more than what it shows."

Colt glanced up at Mike and nodded sadly before continuing. "I lost, Mike. That's all there is to it. All I can say is these people are players we need to avoid." he muttered quietly with a troubled expression as he remembered his fateful meeting with Mikijah. His eyes darted away as he continued talking. "And apparently, rumours are spreading through the chat rooms about the Skardian Pantheons trying to find the guy who beat me..."

"Damn it, Colt!" Mike barked. He stood and started pacing back and forth, muttering to himself while tapping his chin thoughtfully.

Colt groaned and rubbed his face wearily. He sat silently for several minutes while his younger brother paced back and forth, deep in thought. Finally, he spoke again. "Sorry, I can't say more than that right now. I wasn't planning on talking about it at all. The last thing I want to do right now is talk about that. I still haven't decided whether or not to take down these players ourselves when the time is right."

"Yeah, you're right. It's probably better to wait," replied Mike as his eyes narrowed while studying Colt's expression. 'There's more to this, but something is stopping him from talking about it. I'll need to go over this conversation later, and see what the hidden truth is.'

"There's one other problem, though. They're all pretty damn strong. And the way they're using their spells, I have no doubt they have other hidden abilities. But I'm afraid of how strong they might be and if we could even survive a direct confrontation."

'Sorry, Mike. This is the best I can do to clue you in. Paul won't forgive me if I give you all the details right now. Your smart enough to figure out from this that we're dealing with something new. Something completely unexpected.' Colt sighed as Mike raised his eyebrows.