Enemy of the Inferno (Disgardium Book #8): LitRPG Series Read online

  The Montosaurus returns to the island and unwittingly helps Scyth. The beast god deals insane damage, allowing Scyth to quickly refill his plague energy and pour it into Plague Fury scrolls. Later, Scyth gives those scrolls to Yemi as weapons of sabotage.

  Scyth then goes to meet Pecheneg in his castle. The old man introduces him to Blackberry, an analyst and officer from Modus. She’s working for Polotsky. Summoning an Arbiter to register the trade, Blackberry gives Scyth the right to use her image, which allows him to fool tests with the fire of the True Flame. She also talks about Nergal the Radiant’s Great Portable Altar, which the preventers carry with them to use as a respawn point.

  Several thousand high-level players invade the Lakharian Desert and move toward the temple. The Alliance of Preventers is in a hurry to get there before the huge mass of ordinary players. It wants to be the first to complete Nergal’s quest.

  Scyth attacks the altar and destroys it. Immediately afterwards, he infiltrates the preventers’ headquarters under the guise of Blackberry and kills them all. Among them he encounters Crag, now a partner of Modus. As it turns out, the destroyed altar was a fake.

  Yoruba detonates a series of explosions around the temples of Nergal the Radiant during mass blessings. The high priests survive and ask their god for protection against Plague Fury.

  Nergal promises to protect all who answer his summons.

  Disgardium 5: Holy War

  Excommunicado security officer Hairo Morales and his partner Willy Brizuela, men of the lower rungs of society and former peacekeepers, accept Alex’s offer and join the Awoken. Their decision is influenced not only by the financial benefits of Alex’s offer, but also faith in his ability to change the lives of non-citizens for the better.

  The army of Light invades the Lakharian Desert. Undead legions with Shazz at their head come out to meet it. Scyth intervenes in the course of the battle and takes control of Hinterleaf, the Modus clan leader, to redirect an Armageddon onto the real Great Portable Altar. The explosion eliminates the haulers provided by the Goblin League. Deznafar, the Battle Avatar of the Departed raised by Shazz, gives the players no chance. The Armageddon explosion awakens Oyama, Supreme Grand Master of Unarmed Combat, from his meditative sleep.

  He puts an end to the battle with a series of long-range moves, scattering both the remnants of the preventers and the undead army. The master himself is also wounded by Reflection. Scyth brings the old man round and asks him to teach him some new moves. Oyama says he doesn’t work with the undead, but all the same, as he leaves he mentions that he’ll be relaxing in the village of Jiri in southern Latteria.

  A recovered Shazz returns to the Stronghold of the Destroying Plague to restore his fallen army, promising Scyth that it would be stronger than the last.

  The next morning, Alex’s parents fly to a prestigious resort on the moon to rebuild their relationship. On the same day, the Awoken rent a new building in Cali Bottom and begin to set up their clan base.

  Morena’s cultists and a tribe of outcast kobolds join the followers of the Sleepers. Scyth appoints priests who will get Unity bonuses from all the adepts; the kobold chieftain Grog’hyr, their senior shaman Ryg’har and the cultist leaders Dekotra the troll and the half-orc Ranakotz.

  Scyth and Patrick O’Grady set off to the goblin capital of Kinema to buy building materials for the clan fort and to sell the Portal Key to the unexplored frozen continent of Holdest. Auctioneer Grokuszuid promises to invite the richest buyers of Disgardium to the auction.

  From there, Scyth and Patrick head to Latteria, to reach Stone Rib and find the sewer troggs that escaped from underneath Darant, to convert them to the ranks of the Sleepers. However, near the city of Nivelle, Scyth witnesses a Nether rift and an encounter between Harnathea the Ravager and Nergal’s priests and players.

  Scyth sends Patrick to Stone Rib for the troggs, while he himself remains behind to observe the Ravager’s banishing. The high priest summons Nergal the Radiant to help. The divinity appears and draws attention to Scyth: “You are looking in the wrong direction, fools!” The high priest knocks Scyth off his dragon and he falls right onto the Ravager, which then takes him to the beta version of Disgardium, also known as the Nether.

  Time flows five hundred times faster in the Nether than in real life. Scyth is imprisoned by Nine, Beta #9, one of the first hundred beta testers in the game, whose conscious was trapped in virtual space.

  Month after month, Nine kills Scyth time and time again to extract useful skills from him. She is a Collector Mage. Scyth cannot leave the Dis beta; his quit button is gone.

  One night, Nine opens up to Scyth and tells him her real name: June Curtis. Scyth spends the night with her, but the next morning, Nine kills him again and no longer speaks to him.

  Days later (or a year for Scyth), Alex’s friends rescue him from his capsule using its emergency exit button. The nutrient cartridges are found empty — in the Nether, Alex’s brain was working at a frantic pace. Hairo, also present, tells of how similar technology was used by the military to quickly train soldiers in simulations, and it may be that Snowstorm used it for the beta test of the Dis world.

  Alex had planned to throw a party at his house that same night and decides not to delay it, wanting to unwind after his nightmarish year in the Nether.

  Hung’s girlfriend Alison Wu is invited to the party, as is Piper Dandera, who introduced Alex to Sergei ‘Pecheneg’ Polotsky. The girls are members of the youth division of clan Modus. Alex also invites Rita ‘Overweight’ Wood and her girlfriend Karina ‘Goosebumps’ Rasmussen, who has shown interest in Alex for a long time. From the latter he learns that Wesley Cho, previously known as Big Po, wants to meet with him.

  Tissa, who has flown in to see her dad for the weekend, arrives at the party arm-in-arm with her new boyfriend Liam, friend to Mogwai and nephew to Elizabeth. Tissa breaks up with Alex for good. Liam insults Alex and demands that he stay away from Tissa, who manages to get into a fight with Karina over Alex. In the end, Alex spends the night with Karina.

  The next morning, Alex calls Kiran Jackson, Snowstorm director, to find out how to get his character out of the Nether. Jackson laughs at him and denies the existence of the beta version, and when Alex threatens to make public what he knows, he gets angry and threatens to take away all his in-game money in response. The director also demands that Alex fulfill his promises: start the scenario of the Destroying Plague, stop defending Tiamat’s temple, and destroy his character. Then, perhaps, Jackson will think of his own promises.

  Alex asks his house assistant O to send messages to all humans named June Curtis. He wants to find the woman whose consciousness became Nine, to learn the truth about the Disgardium beta test.

  Returning to the Nether, Alex realizes that his character has continued to live there all this time, with Alex’s consciousness. With the help of an Explosive Lollipop buff, Scyth escapes Nine’s castle to Kharinza. The first mob he kills drops a Smoldering Nether Shard. A million of these shards will open a Rift back to the normal version of Dis for Scyth.

  For the next eight months, Scyth levels up and farms shards in the Nether. Finally, the emergency exit timer activates.

  Alex sees in the news that Tiamat’s temple has been nearly destroyed by Mogwai and Criterror from Elites and the solo adventurer Dek. At the same time, the battle between the army of Light and the undead begins. Alex has mere minutes of real time to escape the beta version of Dis and save not only the temple, but also his guardians Flaygray, Nega, Anf and Ripta, who have wound up in control of Shazz the lich.

  In the Nether, Scyth reaches level 100000 and achieves all ten ranks of Resilience, collecting almost a million shards, but is then imprisoned by Three — another beta tester and friend of Nine. Scyth convinces him that he’ll help him escape the Nether by later making a Rift back to the Nether from the other side; then the stuck beta testers would be able to go through to the normal version of Dis. Three gives Scyth the rest of the Smoldering Nether S
hards he needs and lets him go. In parting, he mentions his name: Dennis Kaverin. His friends call him Dek.

  Scyth returns (a synchronization error means that his character is returned with the same stats it had when it fell into the Nether) and he makes it in time. The temple has a few percentage points of durability left. Mogwai, Criterror and Dek have been joined by two mages from the Elites: Laneiran and Biancanova. Scyth deals with them all except Mogwai. On top of that, he turns Criterror, Laneiran and Biancanova undead, and when the battle ends, he sees a system message saying that those three characters have decided to switch to the Destroying Plague faction.

  Scyth flies to the battle site to save his guardians. By then, the battle is coming to a close. Deznafar has fallen and Shazz the lich is on his last legs. The appearance of a second legate in the same location removes Shazz’s Immortality and the lich expires, but his death spreads Plague Dust across the battlefield, killing all the surviving players and turning them undead. At the same time, each of them is invited to switch to the side of the Destroying Plague.

  After collecting the loot and sending his rescued guardians to protect Tiamat’s temple, Scyth peruses the achievements he earned. He becomes Supreme Legate and gets 40% of all the experience from deceased Shazz. He also gets the skill Call of the Supreme Legate, allowing him to summon minions and lesser legates.

  Scyth uses the Of One Blood scroll obtained in battle against Ervigot the Ravager to raise the levels of all his pets — Iggy the swamp needler, Crash the diamond worm and Storm the storm dragon — to his own level 564.

  For reaching levels 400 and 500, Scyth is given not only the skills Spirit Shackles and Flight, but also the achievement All Hail the Hero, and unlike with other achievements, the first to reach level 400 and 500 cannot remain anonymous. Scyth’s name, and his class-A Threat status along with it, becomes known to the whole world.

  Realizing this, Scyth logs out of the game. That same minute, the doorbell rings: it’s Hairo Morales. Now that everyone knows that Alex is the Threat, and his life is in danger, the security officer takes him and the other Awoken, Malik, Hung and Ed, to a secret bunker right away.

  The next day, they fly to school and apply for a transfer to distance learning. On parting, the class teacher Greg Kovac reminds Alex of the importance of preparing for the upcoming citizenship tests. Alex asks his girlfriend Karina Rasmussen to stay quiet about their relationship, so as not to put her life in danger. According to Hairo, Alex’s head is now the most valuable prize on the planet.

  Hairo and Willy take the boys to Alaska, picking up Yoshihiru Uematsu on the way (expert in networks, encryption, AIs and digital defense), Sergei Yuferov (master of fortifications and defensive equipment) and two bodyguards for Alex: Maria Saar and Roj van Garderen.

  The Awoken split up. Alex and Hung, as the two Threats, use the capsules at the base in Alaska; Malik, Ed and his little sister Polyanna go with Willy to another shelter. Alex gives an exclusive interview to Ian Mitchell, for the first time not hiding his identity. Disgardium Daily pays three million dark phoenixes for it.

  Alex decides that as soon as he sells the Portal Key to Holdest, he will delete his character so that he will no longer be hunted. He fears for his parents stuck on the Moon, for his friends and loved ones.

  Scyth attends the closed auction in Kinema. The Portal Key is sold to an unknown buyer for a hundred million gold. As soon as the auction ends, someone stops time in the auction house and teleports Scyth to the basement of an unknown castle. Alex tries everything, but realizes that he can’t escape alone. He is in magic shackles and an energy field blocks all his abilities.

  Scyth’s imprisonment is the work of Eileen, leader of the dark clan Widowmakers, a member of the Alliance of Preventers. This clan is a puppet division of the Children of Kratos, financed by Joshua and Vivian Gallagher, category A citizens. Widowmakers was made to perform operations that might otherwise harm the reputation of the Gallaghers themselves.

  Eileen gives a press conference in which she reveals the kidnapping of the class-A Threat.

  Alex has a nightmare: he is kidnapped, all his friends are killed, and he is forced to surrender to save his parents’ lives. In his dream, Scyth goes to a designated spot: Frozen Gorge in the Gnoll Riverlands. There, certain people perform the Threat banishment ritual… and Scyth wakes up.

  First Priest Yemi from Yoruba asks Apophis, the White Snake who can move wherever he pleases, to save Scyth. Apophis appears and brings Scyth out of the castle. Scyth summons his guardians and Sharkon, Underground Terror. Together, they capture the castle and sell it for forty million gold (not counting the contents of the vault) to the Goblin League, represented by goblin assessor Kusalarix, a leader of the Green League. This last organization not only controls the battles and bets in the Arena, but also runs the criminal world of all Disgardium.

  Hairo, who has flown to Cali Bottom to put mental blocks on the non-citizen members of the Awoken to ensure their discretion, reports that three non-citizens from Gyula’s building crew have died. All three were undead. Several more are in critical condition; Hairo admits them to hospital using the clan’s funds.

  Alex contacts Kiran Jackson. He refuses a deal, accusing Alex of failing to meet his obligations: Scyth failed to turn the cultists of Morena undead. Kiran again demands that Alex delete his character, but offers no guarantees in exchange — old agreements are no longer in force.

  Alex decides to fight the Destroying Plague and Snowstorm, suspecting that the corporation was at fault for the deaths of the non-citizens who had turned undead. In addition, he records a video message, warning that every clan seen at the siege of Tiamat’s temple would lose a castle. Ian Mitchell shares the recording online, but the preventers do not take the warning seriously. The Widowmakers are banished from the Alliance.

  Movarak, chief of the sewer troggs, tells Scyth the reason his tribe left Darant: due to ‘wicked, nightmarish, frightening’ Knock-Knock.

  The Old Goddess of Death, Morena, summons Scyth. She is displeased that he made the members of her cult followers of the Sleepers. At that moment, the Destroying Plague appears behind the barrier where Morena hides, and pulls Scyth away to the Nucleus.

  In the Nucleus’ lair, Scyth sees eight new legates. All of them, with the exception of Biancanova and Laneiran, who were turned undead by Scyth himself, had been hit by the Plague Dust thrown out after Shazz the lich died, and had agreed to change their race. The Nucleus, seeing in them the strongest of the turned sentients, has declared the newly turned players his legates. In addition, the Nucleus has removed the rank of Supreme Legate from Scyth and given it to Mogwai.

  Seeing his time with the Destroying Plague at an end, Scyth jumps into the plague reservoir into which his out-of-control character once threw the Cold-Blooded Punisher set, and retrieves his lost armor.

  Leaving the Nucleus’ lair, Scyth finds himself in the Stronghold of the Destroying Plague in the Lakharian Desert. There the legates from the Elites are waiting for him. They attack, but it turns out the undead cannot harm each other. Mogwai demonstrates that he can use the Call of the Supreme Legate ability to drag Scyth from and to anywhere he wishes, and so eliminate him as a Threat. However, Scyth’s pets are alive, and with their help he takes down the legates three times. He kills Mogwai by dropping him from a great height.

  After his third death in one day, Mogwai is neutralized for twelve hours. In that time, Scyth plans to extract the maximum possible benefit from Destroying Plague Immortality and become human again.

  At the same time, Patrick O’Grady, honorary citizen of Tristad, veteran of the Swarm War and inveterate drunk, learns with Behemoth’s help that all his memories of life in Dis are false. Patrick learns who he really is: a human and veteran of the Third World War sentenced to death for mass manslaughter, who agreed to take part in a Snowstorm experiment to transfer consciousness to the virtual world.

  Rita Wood leaves the sandbox and takes a new nickname: Irita. Scyth sends her so
me unidentified artifacts and money to identify them. The girl lives up to his trust in her and Scyth accepts her into the clan. Irita is a professional trader, and now she has responsibility for all the clan’s commercial activities.

  Scyth gets an idea: to try to reach Terrastera, where Yemi has already been once. This will be possible if Apophis, the White Snake, can be convinced to take Scyth there. Yemi promises to help, but he has grievances: Scyth lost his status as Supreme Legate; being undead is no longer a privilege; and Yoruba, for allying with the Threat, has ruined its reputation with everyone. Scyth shows his hand, telling Yemi about the Sleeping Gods and demonstrating Unity, which gives +1 to a random stat for each new follower of the Sleeping Gods. Yemi and his officers Francesca and Babangida become priests of the Sleeping Gods. In addition, the mage agrees to bring in the orcs of the Broken Axe clan, who deify him.

  The Awoken take two First Kills on Holdest and tame the Montosaurus, which loses its divine nature, but becomes a battle avatar of Scyth.