Unbound Deathlord: Obliteration (The Unbound Deathlord Series Book 2) Read online

  Unbound Deathlord: Obliteration

  By Edward Castle

  Unbound Dethlord: Obliteration

  Copyright © 2018 by Edward Castle

  All rights reserved.

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Developmental and copy editing by Nicolas Lagrand, [email protected]

  Final Pass by 3 Tier Edit, [email protected]

  Cover art by Geistrock, fb.com/geistrockart

  Cover typesetting by Bonnie L. Price, bonnie-l-price.deviantart.com

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Recap

  Heist

  1. I See Dead People

  2. Strike at the Root

  3. Aye Aye, Sir

  4. Sneak Attack

  5. Join the Dark Side, We Have Cookies

  6. Gonna Fly Now

  7. Tavern Time

  8. ...and Action!

  9. The Heroes and the Demon Horde

  Raid

  10. Multiple Stimuli

  11. Power Up

  12. Spectral Return

  13. Metamorphosis

  14. The Walking Undead

  15. Revenge

  16. Everybody Loves a Backdoor

  17. Plan B

  18. Plan C

  19. Mining Operations

  20. Moving Out

  21. Elemental, My Dear Jack

  22. Mixed Blessing

  23. Let's Roll!

  24. Reverse Siege

  25. The Box

  26. Secrets

  27. Too Easy

  28. Too Hard

  Invasion

  29. Sixty-Two Tons of Freedom

  30. Purge

  31. Heading Off

  32. Ruined Diplomacy

  33. Life of a Soldier

  34. Classic Siege

  35. Old Acquaintance

  36. Cozy Inside

  37. Old Pal

  38. Commitment

  Afterword

  Acknowledgements

  As with the first book of the Unbound Deathlord series, this one is also a product of a lot of support and love from different people.

  Let's start with my family, my fiancé, and my friends. Without their support and care, this book wouldn't exist.

  Some readers from Challenge, who threatened to tie me to a chair and force me to write, were also responsible for a unique kind of incentive.

  I mustn't forget my editor, Nicolas Lagrand, and my beta readers, Elias Dantas, Jay Taylor, and Ian Mitchell. Reading my drafts is no easy task, and they did a superb job of helping me turn it into the story you now hold.

  Other people who played an important part in guaranteeing this book's quality were the guys from 3 Tier Editing.

  Thank you all!

  This book wouldn't exist without you.

  Lastly, and most importantly, I thank God.

  For everything.

  Recap

  I know Challenge came out quite a while ago, and a lot happened. So, I thought it would be good to add a recap to jog the memories of those who haven't read it recently.

  Part 1 - Prison

  Jack decided to play a new game, Valia Online, the first Immersive Reality MMORPG. Developed by V-Soft, they've issued a Challenge to the players engaging in extended immersion: remain in game for one month, without dying, for some impressive rewards. He chose to participate.

  His character, an unbound deathlord, woke up in a prison manned by ghoul guards. After overcoming them, he freed a few prisoners and witnessed a high-level NPC in impressive black armor enter the prison.

  As he attempted to escape the prison, he saw the same black armored NPC, Blademaster Shai, in a near death state. In his greed he ended up in a fight with her. He nearly died, only for another high-level NPC, High Lady Renno, to save him.

  However, he found she saved him only to torture him. In a desperate move, he tackled her to the ground and pinned her. He'd reasoned even a high level NPC mage doesn't have superhuman strength, and would be vulnerable to the same techniques a regular human would. But once he'd done it, he found he had no means to kill her, or any hope of escape.

  In his boredom, as he tried to come up with a solution, he experimented with magic. In the end, his experiment killed her, destroyed the prison, and nearly killed him as well. It also earned him the title Dark Archmage.

  After a world of pain, he found Blademaster Shai completely helpless and truly mangled, and finished her off to end her misery, and take her sweet loot.

  Part 2 - Ter'nodril

  After he left the prison, he roamed the Underworld without direction. He stumbled across a player's corpse right beside a 'living' one, a specter, who was about to be killed by a pack of emaciated dogs.

  He saved the specter, Ted, and she led him towards the Catacombs, the city of the specters. Only specters were allowed in the Catacombs, so Ted pointed the way towards Ter'nodril, the city of the drow.

  Once inside, beyond the drow's nightmare army of thralls, he found it to be a hostile environment. Having learned previously that there was a 'Resistance' that might help him, he struggled to find it.

  His first lead was found in a tavern. He killed the Giant Spider Queen in the basement and recovered a strange ring from its corpse, which would turn the wearer into a spider monster.

  Part 3 - Chess

  The tavern owner pointed him towards the Resistance, located in a store near the city wall. There, he met a lich called Manhart, the leader of the Resistance, who brought Jack to a meeting with three other people: two drow and a vampire.

  After a tense conversation, Jack was sent to a distant city with one of the drow, a player with the name Samantha Hidden Daggers, under the authority of the vampire Marbareus.

  Inside the vampire city, Sorina, they learned that Marbareus was the First Lord of the city, son of the Prince who ruled over it.

  There, Jack met Eternal, a vampire player who had somehow become a slave.

  Daggers, Eternal, and Jack took a quest to clear a cave of gabats, and managed to kill the King Gabat. Eternal died due to greed and blamed Jack.

  They were then sent on a Resistance mission under the leadership of Marbarus' right hand, a ghoul named Tardas, to harass the deathlords. In the process, they killed lots of NPCs and players, and in an act of defiance, Jack did the main thing he wasn't supposed to do: he killed a deathlord.

  Part 4 - War

  When they went back to Sorina, Marbareus was enraged and sent Jack alone on a new mission. When Jack was halfway to the quest location, the quest was cancelled.

  Unaware of the reason, he went back only to find out that the city had become hostile territory to him.

  He was found by Tardas, who was in dire straits. Tardas told Jack that there had been a coup led by the Marbareus' sister, and it was only part of a greater ploy.

  The Resistance wished to destroy Dakar, the land of the deathlords and vampires, and Marbareus had been a double agent for the Resistance in the Unifiers, a group created to stop the Resistance.

  However, a third unknown party appeared and unleashed chaos across the vampire world, killing many Princes and their families, Marbareus included.

  Tardas showed Daggers' and Marbareus' corpses to Jack, and said that he didn't know where Eternal was. He also informed Jack that he was taking Marbareus' corpse to the Father — the ruler of th
e vampires — in the hope that he would be resurrected.

  His last warning to Jack was not to trust the lich Manhart.

  Jack took Daggers' possessions with him to return her in the future, and decided to spend most of his remaining time before the end of the Challenge getting stronger.

  He found a good place to train, on the way out, he fed the cub of a pair of impressive tigers.

  While on the way to meet Ted, he found a new town right beside the Catacombs. Visiting it, he learnt it was called the Slums and was created by players of the White Tree clan.

  He met Ted and her friend, who had been dead when they first met: a big zombie named Bear.

  Jack decided to create chaos in the Slums, both to weaken the White Tree clan, and to increase his odds of winning the Challenge, as only the thousand highest leveled players who didn't log out or die would get the rewards.

  He played the drow into attacking the Slums in their search for him, and hired the Zombies 4 Life clan to add to the chaos. As if it wasn't enough, Blademaster Shai appeared, resurrected, with a group of ghouls to kill Jack, and specters also got involved in the battle.

  Daggers appeared in the middle of it all, looking for revenge against Jack who she'd been led to believe had ordered her death when he left for his last quest for Marbarus, After clearing up the confusion, she rejoined Jack's team.

  The chaos reached its peak when the Ruined Mage Kings, the rulers of the Catacombs, used divine magic to level the Slums. Jack and his friends barely survived, only to be confronted by the enraged Blademaster Shai.

  In a desperate fight, they killed her thanks to group effort and a perfectly placed icebomb stone.

  Manhart appeared right after that, healed them, and led them to safety. There, Jack told Manhart about what happened to Marbareus and what Tardas said.

  Jack was told that the third party who attacked the vampires was none other than the drow, and that the Resistance was decimated by them as well.

  Manhart offered Jack a Profession as the Resistance's General.

  Before replying, Jack checked his rewards from winning the Challenge. Just as he was about to reply, he received a call from his lawyer with news that Jack's aunt, someone who Jack had believed to be dead, was still alive and awaiting Jack in his office.

  Jack logged out immediately and made his way to the office, where he found not only his aunt, but his grandfather as well.

  In a revealing conversation, he was let in on some family secrets, and the truth of his parents' deaths, which he had believed to be his fault.

  He learned that V-Soft, the company behind Valia Online, had murdered his parents to keep the fact that they were using the game to read people's thoughts under wraps.

  Jack resolved to take revenge against V-Soft, as the first step in his plan, Jack called Ted's father, a high level V-Soft engineer.

  Heist

  Zombie

  Underworld — Returned — Undead

  Hunger: there is no better definition for a zombie. Like irrational beasts, they eat any living being that gets in their way, succumbing to their base desires as if slaved to gluttony.

  A god created the first zombie to ever walk the world and from then on, all following zombies were twisted by divine magic to look the same: perfect bodies in every aspect, except for the complete lack of skin.

  The sight of a man walking with exposed muscle is disturbing, but no less disturbing than seeing such a man eating other people — often while the victim is still alive.

  Considered monsters by most, some argue that the shock of being brought back to life in such a state, combined with the immeasurable pain they must learn to endure in their first moments as undead when the air sears their exposed nerves, is what breaks their minds.

  Others say that the death magic corrupts not only their bodies, but also their souls.

  There are even those who claim they are only spirits from the Netherworld wearing the husks of former people. However, the fact that the zombies keep their memories is a strong argument against such theories.

  What all agree upon is that they behave as little more than animals.

  They have a society based on raw power, cannot use magic, and merrily give in to their animal instincts.

  Not a few necromancers have discovered that zombies cannot be controlled after being raised from the dead, and it is a great mystery why the power-hungry mages keep bringing more of the horrid creatures to the world.

  Mothers teach their children and this author concurs:

  Unless you're powerful enough to kill a zombie yourself, stay away from them.

  -- Excerpt from "Species of Valia", by Amir, a Karr

  1. I See Dead People

  Major Stewart rose from where he had been examining a corpse. His black hair was cut short and he was blind in the left eye.

  Like all the military walking around him, he was in uniform.

  How a half-blind man could become a Major was a mystery to those who didn't know the unique set of abilities he possessed. Some who knew simply couldn't appreciate them.

  He was standing next to one of many bodies in the building, this one located in a corridor on the third floor. Reports from first responders made it look like it was a terrorist mass shooting, the kind of attack spontaneously made by a few people in support of their violent ideologies from time to time, but the Major was sure this was something else.

  "Military level," he informed his superior, who was standing close to him. "It was executed too well, if the witnesses are to be believed."

  "Are you sure?" The commander, an old and frail-looking male of Asian descent with blue eyes and dyed black hair, asked.

  "As sure as I can be, sir. That ex-policewoman-turned-programmer's testimony was especially clarifying. There were five hundred people in this building. They killed only eighteen, all of them were unarmed and received no warning; the killers knew who they wanted to kill before they even came inside. They also knew which computers they wanted to steal. They were carrying machine guns, but used only homemade handguns. They had protection over their whole body, operated as a unit, and possessed enough tech to kill all communication to and from the building.

  "In summary: precision and know-how that only comes from a lot of training, and toys that only the right connections can get you."

  "Are we talking treason?" The commander's voice was surprisingly hard for a man of his age.

  "Not the way you're suggesting. Someone sold some jammers they shouldn't to the wrong people, sure. But I'd bet on ex-military as the ones who did this."

  "Ex-military? These days?"

  The Major could understand the surprise in the commander's voice. The North American Commonwealth took care of its vets and didn't forget to keep an eye on the people who were dishonorably discharged.

  "Yes, boss."

  "Why do you say that?"

  Stewart indicated an ammo shell on the floor. "Active personnel would've used guns and ammo 'stolen' from military posts instead of self-made ones. It's much easier to do and just as difficult to trace. These guys probably didn't have access to our armories."

  "Any chance this is really terrorism, like the Pentagon claimed to justify sending us here? Or do the higher ups have an agenda?"

  "Terrorism? No, not a chance. This is mostly corporate war gone sour. If I had to bet, I'd say revenge; they targeted only specific people. The Feds might know more about what's going on when they get here."

  "That won't happen. I got a call five minutes ago; they are leaving the investigation to us."

  The Major frowned. "Boss, this makes no sense. This is not our jurisdiction. Even if this is terrorism, we should have civilians getting in our way as we try to do our jobs, as per regulations."

  "I'm aware of that, Major. You'll also love what I'll say next: we must clear the building ASAP, and make it available for federal takeover. Timeline, twelve hours."

  "Sir?"

  Something was very wrong. Stewart didn't like it.


  "I know. Someone is using us as hunting dogs. Search and destroy orders have been heavily hinted at by my superiors."

  "What should I do?"

  "You do as we've been ordered. I don't care for rogue ex-military running around in my country; just make sure to extract information out of them before employing termination. Keep their boss alive, I want to look into the bastard's eyes."

  "Termination?" Stewart asked. "Do I have Black Ops clearance?"

  "I have no idea what you are talking about, Major. Military hunting ex-military on North American Commonwealth soil is illegal. Come to my room later so I can misplace a few officially-counterfeit orders while you're there." The frail man left, walking with a limp thanks to the prosthesis which he had never got used to. He had lost his leg in the same incident that had cost his daughter her arm. If it weren't for his sacrifice, she would have died.

  The Major wondered about the old man. He was difficult to read at times. It was clear that he was deeply disturbed by what had happened here and the following cover-up, since he hated doing anything even marginally outside of the law.

  He shook his head. There was no time to wonder about the games of the higher-ups; he would leave that to the commander.

  Major Stewart, on the other hand, had men to hunt.

  2. Strike at the Root

  Annoyed by the van's shaking, I lit a cigarette and called David.

  "Hello?" Ted's father answered.

  "David, my man!"

  "Shit!" His voice became a whisper and he took almost a full minute to speak again. "Why the hell are you calling me, Jack? I did everything we agreed on."

  "And I paid you handsomely for it," I replied. "In fact, I liked our agreement so much that I'm going to help you right now."

  "Help me?" His voice trembled, probably remembering the help I usually provided him.

  "Yep. I heard something bad is going to happen at V-Soft Headquarters very soon. I also heard they are pros, but you never know; accidents may happen."