The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

"I got the blue coat from the couple we had killed just before," Cael explained, as he walked briskly South through the thick trees of the woods.

"Ah. Quick thinking. I also picked up some clothes from them, they were masters of cosmetics and paltry at gameplay," replied DicingDevil.

"Being a video game fashionista is like being a sword with no blade. However, it's nice of them to have lent the clothes to us: if we occasionally split up and change costumes while ganking, then people will think that there are more of us."

"So they'll report that there are many DeathGang members in the woods?"

"Yes. That would provide a distraction, and divert some of the forces that would be going East."

"Alright, let's do that. There won't be that many players out here, we can each get around five to nine kills and return to Kruxol after an hour of redname, just in time to head East for the war. Unless they sent a lot of stronger players after us, then we should head East immediately and hide in safer DeathGang territory."

"It's only a few hours before the Guilds go to war in the East, most strong players are probably resting or warming up. I doubt they'd send many people to scour these large woods at short notice, let alone come all the way to the South."

"Even so."

"Ha, okay. Anyway, here is the cave."

They faced a high, gaping cave entrance, which resembled an unnaturally large crack in the rocky hillface. As it reared up in front of them, Cael could see a slight glow across the ceiling of the cave, as if someone was lighting a fire inside.

"What's the glow?" he asked.

"Probably the [False Salamander] enemy, a lizard that resembles the rare salamander. It's much weaker, but still has some decent drops."

"I see."

DicingDevil walked up to the edge of the cave, and saw that it was dark inside. He took a step in.

"Wait outside, I'll go and check what's inside," he said.

"Sure," said Cael.

As DicingDevil darted into the cave, Cael sat on a stone near the cave entrance and drew a piece of paper out from his inventory. He figured that he should use this time to experiment further with the [Illusory Quill Pen]. He had used this while killing Dorak, storing mana from the [Arm of Hades] spell and using it to weaken Dorak further with [Spark]. While [Spark] by itself would usually not be enough to disrupt a level 60 player's attack, when combined with the debuffs of [Arm of Hades] mana it was enough to turn the tide of the fight. Since this earlier idea had worked, he decided to try another idea which he had been considering.

Since ancient runes could transform the game world when written, he wondered if casting spells from these runes would lead to spells that also shared the transformative effects of the rune. He took out the [Illusory Quill Pen], and tried to remember some of the ancient runes he had seen in Kruxol library. If this method of spellcasting worked, then he had left Crucis' notebook open and waiting for him in the storage containers towards the South of Kruxol, containing several sketched runes which Cael could copy down on this character. However, for now Cael only needed to recall two or three runes, to test whether they would have any effect.

It proved difficult to recall the often-intricate patterns of the fountain runes. The rune that sprung to mind instead was one from the floor of the Battodo Trial. The main part of the rune was shaped like the letter 'T,' with the top line curving lightly upwards on both sides like a crescent moon. This almost resembled a half-hearted 'Y'. There was a dot placed just above this 'T,' and two dots just below the top line on either side of the 'T'. As he drew this shape, he saw a small aura, resembling faint white vapour, emerging from the rune and dissolving into the air.

He tried to convert this mana into a [Conjure Light] spell, opting for a simple, low-cost spell to test the rune's effect. He opted to use less mana in casting the spell, so that the light was dim and not easily seen by others. However, as he extended his palm to summon the light-source, he saw to his surprise that nothing had appeared there. He was interrupted by a blinding flash, as a bright, glowing orb-like shape appeared in front of him. He averted his eyes and took a couple of hasty steps back.

He felt a creature clawing at his left shoulder, and used [Mana Push] to shove it away so that he could get a look at it. As he looked back up, he saw that a ghostly creature, whose body was composed of pale light, was levitating in front of him. It was much smaller than him, only about the height of his arm from shoulder to elbow. He saw that it was named [Apparition of Light], and was level 15.

He was glad at the low level. As he prepared to kill it with [Magic Missile], it suddenly let out a bright flash, and he felt his left arm and leg become paralysed. This was quite a powerful ability for a creature of such low level. Cael guessed that an [Apparition of Light] would typically not be encountered at this kind of level. Despite the temporary paralysis, he cast [Magic Missile] at the apparition, and saw its HP reduce to 2%. It was more resilient than it should be at this level. Impatient, he killed it with a quick [Mana Sphere], that he didn't bother to charge.

Cael was slightly taken aback by the surprise encounter. However, he was more concerned about the fact that the creature's brilliant glow had got the attention of a couple of players whom he heard nearby. The creature's glowing body had still been slightly faint and transparent, due to its low level, but it still shone very brightly in the night. While the South of the woods didn't have that many players, he had not meant to send out a beacon showing them his location.

One of the players was level 50 from the [Hashin] Guild, wielding a dagger, and charged aggressively towards the Mage. Cael thought quickly and fled into the cave entrance. He knew that this Assassin would catch up with him, but if Cael had remained out in the open then the Assassin could have used [Stealth] or [Stealth Cloak] and then attacked Cael from any angle. If Cael was inside the cave, then he could be assured that the Assassin could only attack from the direction of the entrance.

As the rash Assassin predictably approached the cave entrance and used [Stealth Cloak], Cael cast [Magic Missile] and sent a fan of mana projectiles towards the cave entrance from inside. This struck the Assassin, whose [Stealth Cloak] faded, and caused them to stumble and pause their charge. Cael was still holding the [Illusory Pen] in his left hand, although he had his powerful [Black Cursed Draugr Staff] in his right hand. He cast [Arm of Hades], followed immediately by [Spark]. The Assassin had tried haltingly to run again towards Cael, who was slowly backing off into the cave, but as the [Spark] struck the Assassin he tripped over himself and fell to the ground. The debuff from the [Arm of Hades] had been too much for the ambitious Assassin to push through.

After casting this spell, Cael immediately started scrawling a dense, messy zig-zag on the page with his [Illusory Quill Pen], until his remaining MP was mostly absorbed into the page. The pattern looked a bit like a thick, coloured-in black line, when he was done with it. He then cast [Lesser Aura], to stabilise the mana on the page. This was a method he had also used before the fight with Dorak, finding that the crude zig-zag was a much faster way to place his mana on the page than writing words. As his [Arm of Hades] faded, he saw that the Assassin was trying with difficulty to rise, and had withdrawn a sword for greater range. He also saw that the Assassin's name was [Eijun].

As two more players scrambled into the cave entrance, Cael was glad to see that they seemed to be more concerned about the Hashin than him. One was a level 39 Knight, who tried to swing for the Assassin and was blocked as Eijun whipped his sword up to parry. The Knight then followed up with an impressive sequence, kicking the Assassin back to the ground and then stepping forwards aggressively with his sword still bound to the Assassin's. The Knight followed up with a blunt [Hilt Blow] to Eijun's face, causing the Assassin to shake his head dizzily. However, Eijun grabbed the Knight's legs to destabilise them, then used his sword to [Slash] at the Knight's legs until the Knight fell to the ground.

The other player was a female [Ranger] of level 20, but stepped in to catch the Assassin's back with a quick, surprising sword strike. This player was named [Bathus], and Cael had seen that she had tried to use a bow earlier in the battle, but couldn't manage to aim in the darkness of the cave.

The Assassin's retribution was swift, and severe. He clawed himself to his feet besides Bathus, and stabbed her in the side with [Stunning Dagger]. He then caught her in a [Chokehold], and used [Black Spot] to cut a small slit in her neck. Cael noticed that this [Black Spot] was slightly fragile, because Eijun seemed a bit reluctant to attack this girl.

"If you attack me, I'll kill her! Give up!" said Eijun.

"Don't you dare!" called out the Knight.

"I'll do it, you know? Keep your distance," Eijun said with some hesitance.

The Knight stayed paralysed in place.

"Are you really shameless enough to do that?" Cael asked Eijun with a demeaning tone, "You just seem greedy, not that sadistic and evil."

The Assassin considered killing the girl, but held back. Not only would he lose his bargaining chip, but he felt genuinely reluctant to carry out the act. In order to save face after Cael's challenge, Eijun shook the girl from side to side by the neck, causing her wounds to bleed more fiercely. He stopped when he heard her choked screams.

"See? Don't you dare attack me!" said Eijun.

Cael smiled, he had been hoping to provoke Eijun into such an act. While Eijun was busy running things over in his conscience, Cael had snuck his right hand behind himself into the dense shadows by the cave wall, allowing him to cast spells without Eijun seeing him. He positioned the rest of his body to conceal this.

As Eijun stared angrily up at his opponents, his grip on Bathus suddenly loosened when he was struck by [Spark] again, with Cael once more using the mana from the writing on his piece of paper. Bathus wrung herself free of the Assassin's grip, and the Assassin's weak lunge towards her failed to catch her again. Bathus looked worried, as Eijun clearly intended to threaten her again in order to dissuade the others from fighting him. Eijun stalked slowly towards Bathus, as she backtracked towards Cael.

Cael wore a puckish smile as he strode forwards, towards Eijun, and comfortingly gestured to Bathus to run deeper into the cave. As Bathus ran off, Cael used [Mana Strike] to shove Eijun towards the cave wall as the Assassin attempted to shift gears and pursue Bathus. Eijun tripped over his own feet, and was easily swept backwards by Cael's spell into collision with the wall. Cael smiled, then used [Mana Push] to keep Eijun stuck to the wall, squirming like a bug. As Eijun fell to the ground, he tried to use his arms to break his fall, but found that they weakly collapsed under him as he fell flat onto the cave floor with his face pointing downwards. The debuff from the mana on Cael's page had been enough to prevent the Assassin from breaking his fall normally. Eijun's HP was down to 40%.

The Knight, snapped out of his worried paralysis, ran over to thrust hard at Eijun's throat and back with a sword. This series of strong blows was capped by a [Combination Strike] just below the neck, dealing additional damage since it was part of a sequence of moves. Cael cast [Magic Missile] in support. Eijun was soon down to 10% HP. However, the Knight was surprised when Eijun grabbed the Knight's sword with [Sword hold], then scrambled to his feet and began to strike haphazardly below the Knight's ribs with a dagger. The Knight fell to the ground to avoid taking a direct stab to the kidney region. As Eijun scrambled over the Knight, Cael used a slightly charged [Mana Sphere] to kill Eijun.

Cael sat tiredly on the ground, deactivating the [Lesser Aura], and waited to see if the Knight would attempt to attack him. He felt that it was unlikely, since Cael had a higher level and looked powerful in the fight, while the Knight was on low HP. However, it was actually a good time for the Knight, if he wanted a fight, since Cael was mostly out of MP and could be vulnerable. However, Cael estimated that the Knight was quite slow, and Cael could retreat deeper into the cave until DicongDevil appeared to help. As such, he was still quite calm.

The Knight also did not seem interested in fighting. Instead, he sat down as well. Cael took this as a positive sign: the Knight couldn't fight him when sitting down, so this meant that he could relax for the moment and regain MP.

"Hey, I'm Ajra," said the Knight casually, "Thanks for helping out, these Hashin guys are monsters. People are talking more about DeathGang nowadays, are you planning to join the fight soon?"

"Oh, yeah. Will need to rest a bit first, though. Still a couple of hours, at least," replied Cael.

"A bit less than that," laughed Ajra. "I'll show up for duty, but if things get too nasty we agreed that we were leaving. Maybe you're high-level enough to get an important role, but the rest of us are just used as cannon-fodder." Ajra spoke with a hint of bitterness.

"Will your Guild allow you to desert?" said Cael, feigning the slight high-player snobbishness that he felt Ajra was expecting from him.

"That's why many of us agreed on it. They can't punish all of us. War in here sounds like Hell, especially against these gankers who have no moral compass."

"Ah. Fair enough. I'm convinced, you're quite stirring when you speak about this subject," laughed Cael.

Ajra smiled broadly. "Thank you. I was actually one of the people who started promoting this idea. People were basically thinking that we were being used as cannon fodder, and people really weren't prepared to be like that in this game just because we're here for some days. It hurts, you know?"

"Yeah, of course it does. Anyway, nice to meet you. You'd best be off, to take care of your comrades!"

"Absolutely," said Ajra, as he got to his feet, "Are you coming as well?"

"I'll have a quick look around this cave, then try to make it back. Need to stretch my legs a bit before walking back, I'm just a Mage after all! It's tiring."

Ajra laughed, as he walked breezily out of the cave. Cael had regained most of his MP by now, and could have killed Ajra, but suspected that Ajra might be more useful on the opposite side in a war.

Left alone, now, Cael grinned slightly as he realised that he had killed a member of the [Hashin], the Guild that had killed him painfully a short time ago. However, during the fight he had just treated it as another opponent, and done what he needed to do to win. The quest for revenge was a common theme in stories. 'Revenge' was a challenge taken up by many people, but Cael was not even trying this challenge, simply figuring out how to navigate the situation. There was none of the emotional sound and fury of a quest for revenge. A mythical challenge - gaining 'revenge' - had been partially leapfrogged by not taking up the challenge, and instead being knowingly as amoral as the Hashin. That is why he grinned.

Revenge. If what someone else did to you was so wicked, then why want to do it to them? All you are doing is spreading the disease. That is more like camaraderie than enmity.

Cael wondered how Eijun had got into the Hashin at all. He reflected that the Hashin might have some problems of their own. Eijun reminded him slightly of DeathGang's Brulan, these players lacked the wit to be gankers but still joined in because they saw the fearsome reputation of the ganking Guilds. Also because they were greedy. Being greedy and stupid was not uncommon, most politicians had these traits, as well as the mediocre players that crawl enthusiastically into major Guilds and then scuffle for positions and reputation.

Are greed, self-interest and egoism good? Cael didn't find 'egoism' to be a meaningful idea. For humans, life in itself was merely a barren expanse of time, and it was only given meaning by thoughts, passions, or desires. Much of what people enjoy and want, their 'self-interest,' involves others. The dedicated moral warrior resembles a strict egoist or hedonist: they only feel good when their morals are achieved. What people want partially determines what is in their 'self-interest.' If people feel fulfilled after acting altruistically, is it really egoism to tell them to stop? The 'egoist' always turns out to be someone trying to preach that people should not want or care about the things which they do want or care about. Not everyone is born to be a shyster or usurer. The 'greedy' typically value objects - including imaginary social constructs like money - over themselves. Cael viewed morality as purely discursive: he would proclaim vaguely egoistic principles if it would perturb an opponent, but he did not adhere to it as a moral system. A serious egoism would just be another moral distraction, a way to turn off the intellect so that usurious greed may prosper in its wake.

Soon, he determined that the cave was probably safe for now, with no sound or movements from nearby. He got up and walked deeper into the cave, down a winding tunnel. He eventually found a larger, round area with walls stained by a warm red-orange glow, and saw DicingDevil standing over the bleeding, mangled corpse of Bathus. Cael smiled.

"Well done," Cael said, "So what did you find in here?"

"A few rare creatures, but it's easy to get trapped in here. We should spend some time killing these, then leave to gank and find our way to somewhere safer."

"Sounds like a plan. I have an idea of somewhere we can hide, actually. It's towards the West."