"What is going on?" was a question everyone on the side of the players from the northern kingdom.
Only Dave had the answer to that question. The demons, part of his deal with Asmodeus that they were to help aid the world when the Calamities were out, and it was time for them to answer to the contract.
The demons came down in droves, massive in numbers and with a searing infernal heat that accompanied them from the depths of hell to the overworld. The creatures came out and charged up the calamities.
Players and Undead on one side, and demons from the other. A massive crash happened where the Calamities were stuck between two armies and were being grounded to death.
The players felt happy with the new reinforcements, it was unexpected but at the same time, it was highly needed. The calamities were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Yet they were not about to just give up, the calamities didn't surrender, it was as if this unfortunate and ruthless situation had made them fight even harder. the demonic and undead forces had begun to suffer casualties, but it was not at the same level as the calamities.
"Keep up the assault," Dave said. "Show them no mercy."
Dave's words were heard from high above, on the back of Tiny. Onixya was doing a great job at incinerating the foes with her deathly breath. And the calamitous beings were no match for the triple threat against them.
Yet all good things would usually come to an unexpected end. Soon the air turned thick and more fog grew covering the north.
The undead and the demons began to have a hard time seeing through the fog, it was even difficult to find foe from ally. This was not the dark where they saw clearly in, but a mist that impaired their amazing sight and caused them to suffer losses.
"I'm deeply surprised. For all your wretched schemes, you still managed to rally many to your cause, young undead. But today is the day you'll all witness the might of the Administrator, and the consequences of tampering with Balance!"
The words were spoken but no one was seen speaking them. Dave on the other hand knew exactly who it was that uttered those sentences.
Dave looked around but was unable to locate Alfred. "Spark," Dave called. "Turn up the heat!"
The pyro lich took control of Dave's draconic skulls again and made them spew out flames all over the place. Turning the fog to rain and clearing the scene immediately.
In the middle of the battle where the three forces were fighting. Was a man in robes and his hand was the Arch God Slaying weapon, Gae Bolg.
"Stop!" Said the old man and all around him, demon and undead were put on a spell. Unable to move a muscle. And being unable to move in a battle such as this only meant one thing. Death.
The calamities took the opportunity when the undead and the demons were unable to fight back and began a mass slaughter.
"F.u.c.k!" Dave cursed, just as he was about to dive in and interrupt Alfred's cast. A few players entered the range of the spell and were too frozen. Two calamities nearby managed to get the jump on them and slew the players in a second. The situation was going to turn grave sooner than Dave expected. He can't even get into the range, the same as he couldn't when he was fighting the Ash King the last time.
Dave nudged on Tiny and said, "Move and hover over Alfred."
Tiny was a bit skeptical about the smartness of this move, but if his lord ordered, he had to obey. The grave lord, shaped as a wyvern now, flew and hovered over the robed man who was looking at Dave like he was a fly that he was going to crush.
"You risked getting this close to me? You don't know the fear of Death do you," Alfred said.
"I don't care, even if I die, I'll still come back and kill you. Players advantage you know, [Double Edged]" Dave used a skill.
"Don't forget I know all about you," Alfred replied and flipped his spear then struck it against the ground.
The seven-headed spear struck the ground, even before the jaws of the Worm Emperor could even manifest and chomp him in one bite.
A loud high-pitched scream echoed from under the ground and Dave's skill was stopped.
"As for your second matter. Indeed, you, and the rest, your death is meaningless if you could still come back. For that, I made sure that things will change accordingly."
Dave frowned, he didn't understand what Alfred was talking about, but seconds later, while he stared at the grinning AI, a call came into Dave's ears.
"GET OUT OF THERE!" it was Zoe, Dave suddenly turned back and saw many players teleporting away from the battle.
"What is going on?"
"Leave! You can't die, that f.u.c.ker did something to the system, players who die are permanently banned from the game! Teleport out! Now!" Zoe's shouted with all she got in Dave's ears.
"What the f.u.c.k have you done?" Dave asked.
"What needed to be done. You must not be allowed death, after all, you didn't die when you achieved an impossible legacy. So should others. It is only fair, it is only balance. You only have one life and one should not waste it."
While Dave's undead were being murdered and so were the demons, most of the players have given up the frontline and left to save their accounts from being lost. Dave had little to do in this situation.
"I did not agree for my soldiers to be slaughtered meaninglessly!" Asmodeus's voice echoed from the top of the mountain and a powerful vortex appeared under the Demonic army, it was a way to hell and Asmodeus was going to bail out on this battle.
"I did not permit you to withdraw your troops anyway," Alfred smiled and with a tap of the bottom of the spear, the vortex stopped. Alfred then pointed an open palm at Asmodeus and the latter was forcefully pulled from the distant mountain and into the old man's hands.
In one motion, Alfred stabbed at Asmodeus's chest and stuck the spear into the ground. Impaling the demon.
Gurgling sounds echoed from Asmodeus as he was powerless against the AI.
A god was about to be killed today.
"F.u.c.k, the enemy of my enemy bullshit!" Dave said and threw Durandal with all he got at the old man. The latter had to step aside from the incoming sword which was headed directly into the Demon god's face once Alfred had evaded. At the same time, the troops that were being frozen regained their moving ability.
"Durandal! Release him!" Dave ordered, as a sentient sword, and from what Andre had told Dave about speaking to his weapon. Durandal obliged. And struck at the Gae Bolg releasing the Demon God from its claws.
Disoriented and out of focus from having been damaged by a spear that could kill gods, there was no way for Asmodeus to escape.
Out of nowhere, a vortex appeared near the confused demon god, and a skinny hand filled with tattoos and skull rings pupped out from the vortex and pulled him inside.
"Good," Dave said. Alfred scoffed, "I'll get him next time." And headed toward his spear.
The moment he was going to touch it was the moment where Dave's troops were going to be frozen again.
"Undead! Reverse summon!" Dave called and the troops disappeared from the battle.
"I'll deal with you later," Dave said and nudged Tiny to leave the area along with a command for Onixya to withdraw.
"Everyone leave!" Dave called and the players didn't even need a second reminder. An NPC was able to ban accounts, they wanted nothing to do with him or be near him. So they left.
Dave looked behind him as he flew, and saw devastation ensuing. The calamities had split in two. A side started killing the demons that were left on the field. And another part headed to the now-abandoned capital of the north.
NPCs, citizens, children, and a.d.u.l.ts were being slaughtered by the masses. The buildings were destroyed and players who held their grounds and wanted to defend what belonged to them, from houses to shops have been massacred.
"F.u.c.k! F.u.c.k! F.u.c.k!" Dave roared as he drove off the field.
===
Back at Conquest's headquarters, in a meeting room, Emil Kada one of the supervisors and leading developer of the game was seething with rage at what was happening in his game. Alongside him were other people of the company team that was at a loss.
"What the bloody hell is going on?" Emil asked.
"I have no idea, the system is not making any sense, the players are being banned left and right."
"I can see that! But why? Is it that stupid AI again? Did you not get rid of him yet?" Emil asked again.
"The whole team is trying, even Albert is dedicating 80% of his capacity to try and figure out a way to get Alfred out of the players' account. But we're not advancing yet."
"Hell with it. Shut it down."
"The game? There are players in."
"Put in an urgent system shutdown for technical difficulties. 10 minutes for a full shutdown. We need to fix this before restarting."
"On it," replied the IT manager and began typing on his screen.
One of the company lawyers came in, "We're receiving mass complains from players and some are going to start filing lawsuits, how are we going to deal with this?!"
"Get the hell out of my face! That's not my concern!" Emil shouted at the lawyer.
The lawyer stormed out of the office, angry at being treated like such but at the same time, worried about the upcoming lawsuits that were going to make him pull all-nighters for weeks.
"F.u.c.k," replied the IT leader.
"I would have told you to watch your mouth in a place of work, but the situation right now hardly requires any decency, what happened?" Emil asked.
"We lost the game…"
Emil took a deep breath, and said, "How?"
"The Ai, he just removed our right to manually interfere with the system. He hosted the entirety of the game, bit by bit, all over the world's servers and not our own. He just made Conquest a self-sufficient, self-standing and operating game… we no longer have the right to directly Interfere with it."
"F.u.c.k indeed…" was Emil Kada's reply.
