Unbreakable Fate

Artemis follows and walks through the doorway. "You don't mince words, do you? I like that." She looks around the room. It is pretty standard fair, but the way everything comes together makes it seem much better than it actually is. As expected of a guest room. "Thanks, Vik. Have fun with her Majesty." She says closing the door.

"There's no point talking to someone who might end up being prey," Viktor said, looking over Artemis with his red eyes, "Though you don't look particularly appetising." He bowed to Artemis as he left, heading back towards the throne room.

Back in the real world, Arthur sets Artemis' status to idle and gets up from his bed. It had been awhile since he last sat down and he had started to cramp up a little. He decides to take a quick trip to the restroom and to get something to snack and drink on. He makes sure to keep quiet enough to not disturb his roommate who is sleeping on the couch. The second bedroom being occupied by the other roommate who is currently indisposed with the flu.

Ophellia stood in the war room, typing out a message as she looked at the map on the table. Outside of the portal, it would still be nighttime for another hour or so.
"Viktor," Ophellia said as he walked in, "You're still friends with that Elf in Iron Champions, right?"
"I am, why do you ask?" He replied, standing on the opposite side of the war table to Ophellia.
"Get him to turn on Exudar." She said. Viktor nodded, and left.

Arthur had managed to return to his room without disturbing his roommate. With an energy drink in one hand, and a plate of pizza in the other, he sets back down on his bed. He nearly sits right on the headset, but repositions it using his rear. Once he gets situated, the sound of a can opening breaks the night's silence and the sound of liquid being guzzled down follows. He dives into the meaty pizza and once satisfied, he sets the plate and the drink on a side table. He brings the headset back on to see Artemis still idling.

Good, time to keep up with whatever is happening in this place.

With that done, Ophellia returned to the throne room, re-taking her place. Sitting there, she typed out a message to Artemis.

Code:

I suppose if I want you on my side, I owe you an explanation.

A notification appears at the side of his screen, Ophellia continuing her conversation with Artemis through messages. He reads it and forms his reply.

Code:

That would be great, Ophellia.

Code:

Come back to the throne room, then.

Arthur grunts angrily as he delves back into the world. Artemis breaks out of her daydream like state and heads off back to the throne room. Her hope is to get more information out of the Queen vampire. Once there, she approaches the throne. Without a bow or any real physical greeting, she asks, "Why do you want me to join you?"

Ophellia shrugged in response.
"Why not?" She asked, "There's no real reason. You just stood out."

A look of exasperation appears on Artemis' face and she pinches the bridge of her nose. "Alright, I guess I shouldn't complain if someone actually thinks a plain person like me stands out." She lowers her hand to her waist and places it there. The look of exasperation being replaced with a look of intrigue. What does she mean by "Stood out"? Was it just when I interrupted her at the meeting? What is even going through this woman's head?

"Anyway. I suppose you'd wanna know what you're fighting for," Ophellia said, "This world, it's not fair, is it?" She asked, crossing her legs, "Blacklist kill whoever they want, the Iron Champions take anything they want, and Noctis are arseholes.
"So I've decided to take over. An immortal, benevolent and beautiful Queen to keep everyone in check isn't a bad idea, is it?"

A modest one would be more helpful. Artemis thinks. "Anything is better than the current state of things, I suppose." She says halfheartedly. I wonder if that DarkWraith is a member of Blacklist. Her tune changes as she thinks this. The chance for revenge cropping up brings a smile to her face. "Though, I would enjoy wiping their smug grins off of their faces and removing them from their high horses and if you're willing to be the one who starts this up, I might as well join in."

"Well, good. Just remember, failure gets punished, success gets rewarded." Ophellia smiled, as she read a message appearing in front of her. "Exudar is refusing to hand over the gold," She said, "Blacklist have already declared war, and Noctis haven't done anything. If Viktor can get his elf friend to start a rebellion, we'll have the Iron Champions by the end of the month.

"Exciting times" Artemis begins. "I was just a hopeless little spider doing pity requests until the invitation popped up. Look at me now. Waiting in a vampire queen's castle with the major factions going to war." She says with an air of pride in her voice. Like she had never thought something like this could happen to her. "It's as if this is all happening in a dream and when I wake up I'll be woken up by some drunk villager smacking me with a sharpened stick." She says as though it has already happened in her lifetime.

"More likely the world'll end," Ophellia said, "Another good reason to do something productive with this place. Conquering nations is part of a Queen's job, y'know? I can't die before conquering something. I'd be remembered as the Queen who didn't do anything."

It's not like you're doing anything now "Maybe you'll be the one to cause the world to end. I know a good fortune teller if you want to find out." Artemis says jokingly, "But yes, that should be expected of someone in your position. Just like it should be expected of someone in my position to kill for her ruler." She continues, wondering if Ophellia was taking her hints.

Ophellia checked the time. Outside of Velthas, it would still be night time, and the Iron Champions would still be recovering from their war with Noctis, while trying to get ready to fight Blacklist.
"Consider this your official induction into the Court of Velthas," Ophellia said, offering Artemis an invitation to the guild, "You're the only living member, but we can fix that later. For now, we're going to take an Adamant mine from the Champions."

Ophellia sent out a few messages, and smiled at Artemis, leading the way back to the portal.
"Blacklist are going to attack the Iron Champion's citadel. They'll probably bring forces out of garrison at the mine to man their defences properly. So we're taking an attack force to the mine and capturing it. We'll be meeting Nryidia, Sir Vaer and Vel'si at the mine."

Arthur accepts the guild invite. His alliances now growing. This fires a message to his friends telling them of his recent activity. Some new messages pop up from said friends, but he ignores them for the time being. Intrigue spreads throughout Arthur as he lets what Ophellia said about being the only living member changing sink in. "A vamp spider, eh? Sounds very interesting."

Artemis follows at Ophellia's side, her energy on the rise now that she isn't just standing around and talking.

"You have to earn the right to a Vampire's blood," Ophellia said to Artemis, "The blood of a royal, even more so. If you don't fail me, I might consider it." She said, smiling at the Drider, "There's always the option of becoming a regular undead, if you don't think you're up to the task."

Artemis gives a cocky smile. "I'm up for most anything so long as I come out of it alive." She says, her tone matching her smile.

"If your aim's to become a Vampire, staying alive shouldn't be a priority," Ophellia said as they walked down the path, the poisonous plants that covered the ground outside of her castle waving in the slight breeze. Once through the portal and outside of Velthas, Ophellia turned to Artemis.

"We're going to capture this mine. Sir Vaer has been communicating with members of Blacklist, and we're going to assault the mine when the players guarding the area are called back to the Champion's citadel," Ophellia said, pausing to give Artemis time to processs it, before continuing. "That means we'll have less players to fight. There might be some, so make sure to check the level difference before you fight. The trash mobs should be easy enough."

Artemis nods, taking this information in. "Then let's get this excavation started." She replies quickly and confidently. I'll make it out of this... dead? I guess it's best to not think too hard on it. Let things flow naturally. That's how I've gotten this far.

Ophellia sent a few more messages on the trip to the mine, choosing to use a ground mount rather than her flying one, so Artemis wouldn't be making the journey alone. As they neared the mountains, she received word that Blacklist had started their attack, and that, as predicted, guards from the mine were being pulled back to defend the Citadel.

"Ophellia!" A high-pitched, girlish voice shouted as they approaced the base, a small creature flying towards them at a ridiculous speed. It buzzed around her, talking too fast to be understood, before turning to Artemis. "Oooh," She said, "You don't see many Driders outside of their faction area. I'm Nyridia, Undead Tree Nymph healer extraordinaire." She paused a second after saying this, examining Artemis. "You're still alive? I can only heal undead, so you'd better stay behind someone."

"It's a pleasure, Nyridia. My name is Artemis and I'm on our people's pilgrimage. I must gather enough information from you people so when we take over, we'd know the main points to attack." She says with small laugh escaping from her, meaning it in a joking manner. "Don't worry too much about me, I'll find the nearest meat-shield and march on with you all."

"Then you'll want Sir Vaer. Being a meatshield is all he's really good for," Nyridia said with a grin, before a deep voice sounded from a little ways ahead.
"At least I'm not in danger of being crushed underfoot," Said a Knight encased in full black paint. "Sir Vaer, at your service."

Artemis nods to Vaer. "It's a pleasure."

"Where's Vel'si?" Ophellia asked, inviting everyone present to a group.
"This one is here." A gruff voice said, coming up from behind the group. A lizard-man, standing at about 7 feet. He looked at Artemis, before nodding. "So you're her pet spider." He said, before taking the pair of massive axes off of his back. "This one thinks we should hurry. We would not want the main battle to end before we claim victory."

Ophellia nodded, adding him to the group.
"We win if we reduce their garrison to zero. Stay together and kill everything."

"This one thinks you're her pet lizard." Artemis says in a mocking tone towards the newcomer, Vel'si, not being intimidated by the lizard-man's size nor his massive weapons. A smile on her face as she says it. She turns her attention back to Ophellia and nods at the orders. May Shalquior's grace shine upon me. She thinks of this prayer to her chosen goddess.

After Vulcan Entertainment foolishly tried to implement microtransactions, that essentially brought the game into pay 2 win territory, the second expansion was met with record low sales, causing the announcement that Unbreakable Fate would close on January 2nd, 2037.

In game, The Iron Champions had successfully defended their citadel against Blacklist, though they lost their adamant mine to the Court of Velthas. Numerous patches to the guild stronghold system meant that guild lieutenants and higher could create their own NPCs, options being unlocked through PvP and PvE achievements.
The hardest of these to achieve was the Dragon, requiring a total of 8 Nightmare difficulty raids to be completed without a single party wipe, over a period of two weeks. Only a few guilds managed to get one, Noctis being the third. They quickly won the guild war, and the other guilds were almost wiped out. The Court of Velthas survived until the pay2win fiasco, upon which most of its members quit the game.

The last day of the game, and Ophellia logged in. She too had quit in protest over the microtransactions, but had occaisionally come back onto the game to repair Velthas and have some short RP with the few friends she had left in the game.

Now, she was sat on her throne.
"A queen ruling an empty kingdom." She said out loud, her voice echoing. Despite the developers completely fucking up and ruining everything, Unbreakable Fate had been an amazing game.

"Empty kingdom? Is it really empty when you have a ton of NPCs to fuck with?" A woman's voice calls out from the door to the throne room. The owner of the voice, Artemis, walks in clad head to multiple toe in only the finest of light ebony armor. She scurries up to the chair and begins to twirl about, showing off the armor. "Do you think my ass looks fat?" She asks, her words slightly slurred.

"You're a spider, of course your arse is fat," Ophellia replied, smirking. At midnight tonight, Unbreakable Fate was going shut down for good. Ophellia sighed, stretching as the deadline approached. "It's good that you finally paid a visit to your queen."

Artemis' hands find her hips as she finishes her twirling and facing Ophellia says, "You're just jealous your ass isn't this big." With a smile on her face her hands leave her hips and cross across her chest. Her armor vanishes and is replaced with something a bit more regal. "Besides, I didn't pop in to see you. I came in here to tribute our fallen friends. Taken from us because of unforeseen circumstances." Taking time in between each sentence to process what she is going to say.

"Rather than mourn them, you should be mourning Velthas. This world is about to be annihilated, and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it."

"All the more reason to drink and be merry! Maybe we'll be lucky and a new world will open. Who knows?" She says, outstretching one of her hands.

Arthur puts in the /drink command and a glass of wine appears in Artemis' hand. He himself has his own little set up and his eyes look longingly into the in game clock. Not much longer now and all of the time he had spent would have gone to waste. At least he could focus a bit more on his actual life instead of this artificial one.

Ophellia sat in sad silence as the clock slowly ticked down, memories of all the hours she'd spent playing the game flowing through her head. It had been fun, and she'd miss the people she'd known in-game, but life would move on. There'd be another game to get hyped for, and then feel the crushing disappointment when it was completely ruined by microtransactions, tiny DLC, casuals and fucking normies.

"I never did make you a vampire, did I?"

Artemis shrugs, "Is there a point? It was kinda my thing being the only living member of your court, you know?" She sighs, an exasperated expression moves onto her face. "But really, how much paler would I become if I turned into a vamp?" She taps her white as snow left arm. "I'm already albino. Not to mention my fangs. Would they just become longer? I mean, we're pretty much the same. 'cept you can't go around in the light." She takes a sip of the wine after delivering her many questions.

"You might get darker, I don't know how it works on non-humans." Ophellia answered, sighing, "The sunlight thing is a myth, it really only dampens our powers."

Artemis nods, making a contemplative face. My fair skin for being undead. She swirls the wine in her glass before taking another sip. "We might as well do it. I've been with this guild long enough." She doesn't know if it is the wine talking or if it is her interest taking over. "I might as well find otu how it feels to be one of you weirdos before we all perish."

"Vampirism's only good for when the world's still here," Ophellia answered, "There's no point in damning your eternal soul to the fourth circle of hell for a few minutes. Might as well get your heaven for being a good, not-undead spider."

"I think I've spent my fair share of heaven points. My God wouldn't give me the time of day, that much I know. Which is why I might as well drop my humanity for this experience if only for a few minutes." Artemis counters. A grin finding its way on her face.

"I'm not into ripping my own servants off," Ophellia said, "Even I have morals." Ophellia was about to continue, when red text covered the top of the screen.
60 seconds until server closure

The notification flashes at the top of the screen. Arthur takes a defiant shot of whiskey.

"Alright, alright. If you would get the feel bads for doing this, I won't push it anymore." Artemis swirls the wine in the glass again, uneasy. "Reincarnation is always a fun thing to think about, since we're on the last leg. I wonder what I'd come back as." She says, trying to continue to break the thick sullen air that has enveloped them.

"I think I'd prefer for there to be another world," She said, "More sights to see, adventures to complete and more people to befriend and/or conquer. Maybe I'll even see you there."

She silently nods. "To wherever life brings us next." She raises the glass of wine and takes one final drink from it.

The timer ends its count. A series of of zeroes can be read across his screen. "It was fun while it lasted. Guess I should head off to bed now." He closes his eyes, blocking out the fantasy around him and trying to break back into the dull and boring life he leads on the outside.

Ophellia blinked when the countdown hit zero. Artemis had vanished, but Ophellia was still Sat in her throne. She was confused for a moment, not knowing why the game was still online. She tried to access the menu to contact a GM or another player, but she found the player list was missing.
"How do you manage to fuck up turning a server off?" She asked nobody in particular. Artemis had probably crashed or lost connection, but the server itself still seemed to be up.

Arthur makes the motion he had made so many times before. His hands reach up towards his head to take off the bulky headpiece that allowed him passage into the mmo, but instead of the headpiece, he just feels hair. Not his own course hair mind you. Soft and silky hair that doesn't belong to him. His eyes open, or more aptly, Artemis' eyes open. She expects to be sat in the throne room of Velthas still, but to her surprise she is not. She looks around to notice she is in an unfamiliar building if the walls surrounding her were any indication. It looks to be some kind of storage room with many boxes stacked up.

"Where... wait... how..." Her eyes widen, choking back the words as her own voice takes her by surprise and she thinks. Are the servers still up? But, why could I feel her hair? Why could I feel at all? and then something hits her nose. The smell of someone cooking. Smell? Why can I do this? This wasn't part of the game before. She tries to open her console, but to no avail. She cannot contact anyone for some odd reason.

After discovering that the 'game' now felt more real than reality did, Ophellia had started to notice that the NPCs around Velthas were more 'alive' than they were in the game; the servants bowed their heads, she was referred to as "Your Highness" and the roaming undead didn't follow any kind of patterns. Frowning, she spoke to one of the servants.
"Excuse me," She said, feeling idiotic for talking to an NPC, "What's going on?"
"I'm not sure what you mean, my lady," The servant replied, "Is there a problem?"

Ophellia, or rather, the girl playing Ophellia, only got more confused. The maid's face showed a look of complete confusion; she almost looked panicked at the thought Ophellia was displeased.
"N-no," Ophellia managed to stammer out, "I'm just a littled confused. Where are we?"
"We're currently in the throne room of Castle Velthas," She answered, with a realistic smile.
Is this what they meant by moving on to next-gen? Ophellia asked herself as she dismissed the maid.

"What is going on?" Artemis asks, whispering. It's as if Arthur's consciousness left his body and entered into Artemis. Maybe... this was a surprise update? She shakes her head and pulls her knife out from her sheath. She lightly pokes her hand just enough so that blood would trickle out and to her surprise she actually felt the pain. I can't see how they made this possible. Something's wrong. Just then, she hears a conversation.

"I told you, mate. A buncha orcs have holed up near here." A man's muffled voice says. Not long after comes a reply.
"If that's right, then why haven't the guardsmen gone up there and killed them? Or at least called in a few officers?" Another's man's voice joins in.
"They're orcs, mate. It's gonna take a bit more than a few guardsmen and an officer to take them out." The first man replies. "Especially if they've got goblins with 'em."

She listens for their footsteps and once realizes they're coming closer, quickly looks for a hiding spot. The room is large and, as noted, has many boxes lining the floor and walls. She doesn't know how exactly she'd hide from them, being half of a large spider cannot help in hiding out too well. There is a window, but it is far too small for her. Dammit She thinks as the footsteps continue to grow louder.

Somewhere in the back of Ophellia's mind was an insane idea. One that she wouldn't admit to herself. It was childish, something out of a chinese cartoon. That's what she told herself. A few years later and she'd eventually accepted the terrible reality that she was now an immortal Vampire queen. Once she'd gotten properly used to the idea, she decided to 'tidy up' the Vampire race, killing any that didn't belong to a proper court, and forcing those courts to pay her in exchange for not being wiped out. Only two are still around.

Seventy years into her new life, she invaded the Kingdom of Albion, and used her human persona, a Vampire Hunter named Kritsy, to defeat herself.

Now, Ophellia stands as Kersi, the King of Albion's most trusted agent. She was somewhere along the border of Vahla, scouting for enemy activity.