THE GILDED LEGEND (Enternity Online)

Chapter 13 The Rise of the Dark Artifact

Axel landed in a narrow alley, knees bent to absorb the impact that should have shattered his legs. He panted, staring at his palms, which now glowed a brighter gold than before. Above, the city sky, normally thick with light pollution, suddenly looked strange. There was a distortion, like a broken old television screen.

"Zara! Are you still there?" Axel touched his earpiece while running towards the motorcycle he had hidden behind a pile of trash.

"Axel! You won't believe this! I just forced my way into the server's monitoring system." Zara's voice was broken by static. "Liam... he's not just attacking us in the real world. He released something inside Eternity."

"What do you mean?" Axel started his motorcycle engine. The roar of the engine was drowned out by strange thundering sounds that seemed to come from the sky.

"He used a Dark Artifact. Dark Siphon. I saw massive amounts of XP data being sucked into a single coordinate point at the server center," Zara yelled. "Axel, the players... they are losing levels in real-time!"

Axel sped his motorcycle through the darkness of the night. His eyes kept blinking, displaying the Gilded interface overlaying the view of the highway. "How many, Zara? How many players are affected?"

"Almost all of Aethelgard! I'm seeing thousands of level-down notifications every second! This is insane, Axel! The server won't be able to handle this massive load of data corruption. If this continues, the entire player database will be deleted!"

"That bastard really wants to burn everything down," Axel growled. He made a sharp turn with his motorcycle, avoiding a black car that started appearing in his rearview mirror. "Does he want that power for himself?"

"Yes! He's forcing the system to give him XP from other players through that Artifact. But the artifact is unstable. He's damaging the basic structure of the simulation!" Zara paused for a moment; the rapid clatter of keyboard keys was heard. "Axel, I'm seeing temperature fluctuations at the data center. This will trigger self-destruction if not stopped!"

Axel felt a tightness in his chest. His memory returned to the thousands of players he met in the plaza. People who just wanted to escape the bitter reality of the real world, now had to lose everything because of one person's obsession.

"This is my responsibility, Zara," Axel whispered.

"What do you mean? This is Liam's fault!"

"I'm the one who activated the Gilded System. I'm the one who lured him out. If I never reset my account, he wouldn't have gone this far." Axel clenched his hands on the motorcycle handlebars. "I have to dive back in. Right now."

"Are you insane?! You just got out of the pod! Your nervous system is unstable! Diving in this condition is equivalent to neural suicide!" Zara shouted, her voice full of fear.

"There's no other choice, Zara. Only I have the Gilded frequency to neutralize that dark energy. You have to help me find an access point undetected by Liam's operatives out here."

"Axel, please ... we can report to the authorities."

"The authorities don't know anything about the Operators or this simulation, Zara! They'll just think this is a regular cyber attack." Axel parked his motorcycle in front of an old abandoned building. "Hurry, find the access. I'll use the portable device in this bag."

Axel ran inside the building, heading to the damp basement. He took out his modified portable VR rig. The cables looked tangled and disorganized, but he knew this was enough for an emergency connection.

"Found it! There's a gap in sub-server 09. But Axel, you only have a little time before the system detects your anomaly." Zara's voice started to calm down slightly, though still shaking.

"Do it, Zara. Put me into the heart of the chaos."

Axel put on his device. The moment the sensors touched his scalp, a pain like thousands of hot needles pierced his brain. He screamed, but his voice was muffled by the sync process.

Instantly, Axel stood in the middle of Aethelgard Plaza. But, this wasn't the city he knew. The sky above was no longer blue or purple, but pitch black with an energy vortex resembling a black hole. Strong winds were blowing.

"Help! My level! My level dropped to 50!" A player shouted nearby, his body started to shake and slowly faded and turned transparent.

"Mine too! I spent three years reaching level 180!" Another player cried, holding their head.

In the center of the plaza, a pillar of black energy towered into the sky. At its peak, a faint silhouette of Liam Fury was visible, laughing amidst the painful data storm. The artifact in his hand throbbed, each throb pulling light from the bodies of the surrounding players.

“This is digital massacre,” Axel thought.

"Liam! Stop this!" Axel yelled. His voice echoed, amplified by the Gilded system which was now starting to resonate with the server instability.

The silhouette above turned. Liam's eyes glowed dark purple, no traces of humanity left in them. "Look, Steele! Look at the power you hid from me! With this, I don't need your Gilded system! I will take this whole server!"

"You're destroying thousands of lives, Liam! Their nerves are connected to this data! If you absorb it forcibly, they could fall into a coma!" Axel tried to step forward, but the gravitational pressure at the center of the pillar was immense.

"Evolution demands sacrifice!" Liam raised his artifact higher. "They are just numbers! I am the entity that will survive!"

Suddenly, the simulated ground shook violently. Large cracks appeared on the marble floor of the plaza, emitting a blinding red warning light. System sirens howled throughout the world of Eternity.

"Axel! The server is collapsing!" Zara's voice sounded inside his head. "Data integrity is falling below thirty percent! If it reaches zero, everyone connected will experience a brain dump!"

Axel closed his eyes. He felt the flow of Gilded energy inside him begin to surge. He knew what to do, even if it meant giving all his remaining energy to counter this madness.

"I'll try to distribute the energy load, Zara. Use your analyst access to redirect the Dark Siphon to the backup route you created earlier," Axel ordered.

"But Axel, that will make you Liam's primary absorption target! You'll feel the pain of those thousands of players alone!"

"Just do it! Now!"

Axel stretched out his arms. Golden light burst from his chest, forming a web of light that tried to envelop Liam's black pillar. Overwhelming pain slammed into Axel. He felt as if his soul was being pulled in ten different directions. Every level lost by another player, he felt as a tear in his own nerves.

"Arghhhhh!" Axel fell to his knees, his hands clutching at the digital sand as it disintegrated.

In the midst of that suffering, a strange phenomenon occurred. Time seemed to stand still. The players' screams faded, and Liam's laughter became a slow, silent motion. In front of Axel, a dialogue window appeared. Not gold, not black, but blinding pure white.

There were no yes or no buttons. There were only lines of text.

[ARCHITECT OVERRIDE : EMERGENCY BROADCAST]

A formless, emotionless voice, yet feeling very clear, echoed directly within the core of Axel's consciousness.

"First Candidate, the simulation's tolerance limit has been exceeded. The fallout from this failure will destroy the remaining containers."

Axel tried to breathe, even though his digital lungs felt like they were burning. "Who... who are you?"

"We are the Operators. We built this bridge for evolution, not for mass destruction."

The white light grew brighter, temporarily swallowing Liam's figure and his black pillar.

"This error must be repaired from within the core. The Gilded power is both the key and the destroyer. The choice is now in your hands, Steele."

A final message appeared in the middle of the cracking screen, an ultimatum that made Axel's real-world heart almost stop beating.

[Operator Ultimatum : Repair this structure within 48 hours, or we will erase the entire reality of Eternity along with all souls within it. Repair or destroy.]

Axel gasped for air, his vision darkening as the system forced him out due to overload. Before his consciousness completely faded, he saw Liam's shadow starting to fuse with the dark artifact, preparing for a more terrifying attack.

"Two days ..." Axel whispered before everything went completely dark. "Only two days.”

The Rise of the Dark Artifact