POV Vesuvius:
A cold spot appeared on the horizon, quickly getting closer and closer. It was as if winter had come, but there was no frost or snow, as it wasn’t physical coldness but the coldness of death. The thick, impenetrable mist spread through the mountains as if someone spilled milk all over them.
The dragon flapped his wings, his life force flowing through his veins, pushing back the all-consuming coldness of death. His shiny armor and horns gleamed within the smoke clouds, in the faint golden light pulsing within the canyons of magma of his armor.
‘They become stronger…’ Vesuvius felt the aura of coldness and despair spill over the mountains, the grass withering and dying. Only the bubble of his aura kept it lush and green around him.
A single figure in a black robe, under its hood, nothing but endless darkness formed out of the mist, two ethereally blue eyes piercing through the mist and smoke.
The aura was much stronger than before, making the dragon feel the premonition of death.
‘Reapers are truly unfair… they can grow so strong just from deaths. Death they don’t even have to cause by themself. Or maybe they were this strong from the beginning… and were hiding it.’
“I want to trade some of the favor for information.” The dragon’s words reached straight toward the reaper.
The reapers nodded, and a slight cold draft washed over the dragon’s face.
“Tell me about space element. Who rules over it and who it belongs to.”
There was nothing but utter silence as the reaper just remained to stare at the dragon with its ethereal eyes. Vesuvius even started to doubt if the reaper he asked had that knowledge.
Just as he wanted to change his question, the amalgamation of death spoke in a dry and rasped voice, sounding like a dying man, “It wasn’t given. It is still in the hands of the universe, waiting for someone to take it or inherit it.”
‘Huh, this is new information! But why is the reaper more informed than me with my inherited knowledge? Do maybe reapers have some power to harvest knowledge of the dead? That would be op… but all four balance races are op and…. well-unbalanced. ‘
He realized that his inherited knowledge had large gaps, ‘Why is everything there only about dragons? There is almost no other information. How self-centered are we dragons that we don’t even bother to teach our young about other races and the workings of the world? Well, an average dragon likely spends most of their life sleeping on their pile of gold, not giving a fuck about the world.’
He let go of his silly thoughts and returned to the topic, “How can someone take it?”
The reaper just shook its head, “I don’t know.”
‘It isn’t that surprising, if it was so easy then it would be taken a long time ago.’𝑂𝑽𝐿xt.𝗇t
“We are done for now. I now know what I wanted.”
The dragon flapped his wings, and lightning crackled and sparked around him. Then he shot towards the horizon.
He finally knew what he needed to do and what his big goal was, ‘I will take it for myself. But, if I do it, it will potentially cause most of the gods to declare war on me. I must prepare and become stronger. And only then I will take it, becoming the sole being in this world who has the domain over space.’
He wasn’t as arrogant as to think he could win a war of such scale and intensity as he was now. Angels and elements of respective elemental gods would attack him in swarms with their full power.
He could even expect to face the seven virtues, the most powerful and highest order of angels. And after witnessing just the projection of their demonic equivalent, he was sure he couldn’t defeat even one of them.
The dragon thought about the situation, the wind cooling his hot head as he soared between the clouds.
‘I need more personal power and a powerful army that will support me, before declaring war on the world. Then I will move and take it. It will take a long time, but finally, I know my way to the true power. Also, I should explore more about what the wyrm said… a fundamental incompatibility could be a problem.’
Suddenly a voice entered his mind through a connection of his blood, “Your Highness, I have recovered the gems. I am coming back!”
‘Right on time!’ The world twisted and warped, and the dragon vanished out of the air, leaving only an empty sky filled with smoke.
POV Brown:
A young man with a brown fedora on his head rested in his bed. His face was illuminated by the glow of the tablet he held. He had dark eyebags and looked depressed as everything was slowly moving down the hill.
A loud distant explosion made the glass panels in his window ring from the vibrations. The sirens of police cars and ambulances constantly blared out. Suddenly his lightbulb turned off, submerging his room into darkness.
‘Fucking griefers! Why when fuck would they keep exploding transformations… that is plain annoying. Both worlds are going into shit…’
From the moment the players of LOMM discovered that their powers from the game started to work in the real world, everything turned into chaos.
‘It is like selling bazookas and tanks in grocery stores without any supervision… They are freaks out there that can collapse a building with a wave of their hand. The government simply can’t contain this. The powerful guilds from the game have now the power to topple down small countries. This will not end well.’
He wanted to just be famous and post his videos, but now he felt like it was a silly dream in the current situation when both the game world and the earth were turning into chaos.
‘Demons are advancing, smashing and burning down cities, villages, and towns along the way. At the same time, the dragon with dubious origins and motivations keeps expanding their power.’
He looked at the pile of papers lying on the floor, ‘Time to move this forward.’
He no longer wanted to make videos just to become famous. He now realized the new era needed its journalists and reporters to reveal evil and corruption in both worlds. The world needed someone who would dive into the metaphorical sewers of society to fish out the truth.