Everlast Online

Liz's button eyes flitted back and forth between the undead kneeling in front of her and the new page in the [Book of Damned Souls].

A death knight!? Liz cried internally, happy but mostly shocked.

Death knights were one of the most prolific types of undead in modern fiction. Most fantasy had been forgotten, replaced with the far more relevant sci-fi genre - mostly because it had slowly become less fictional - however, some parts of the genre had been remembered. This mostly amounted to the largest figures of the group, creatures like dragons and demons, but among the folklore and myth remembered on New Earth death knights were still popular. They were hulking masses of power, their undead figures striking terror into the living.

Now Liz had one such terror in her service.

She was the very visage of power, so large she could even dwarf Gloria and covered in black metallic plates that could likely intimidate even dragons. More than anything, Liz was happy to know exactly what constituted a grudge. Upon seeing one listed among the ingredients needed for an ancient guard, Liz believed they would play an important part in creating powerful undead; considering they were the only S ranked undead she had come across so far.

Now, having seen one for herself, she understood what they were - or so she believed.

In truth, Liz had misunderstood how grudges were formed; at least in relation to the soul. Liz believed that the breeder's soul had developed a grudge because she had been killed, but the reason was not so basic.

Grudges form based on 2 factors: Powerful negative emotions and soul strength. Any strong negative emotion could make the soul volatile enough to remain after death instead of dispersing as they should; hate, betrayal, unrequited love or even simple anger at a stubbed toe. Different emotions of course had different strengths and mere anger could never match up to hatred; weaker emotions would cause the remaining soul fragments to fully disperse soon while stronger emotions allowed the grudge to maintain itself longer. In the past there had been records of some grudges lasting hundreds of years before finally dispersing.

The second requirement was that a soul needed to be strong enough to maintain itself after death. In the simple sense, weak souls were not able to prevent their dispersal and so never formed grudges, however, there were exceptions to this. If many weak souls feel great negative emotions, the tiny fragments of soul - that even a skill would not be able to detect - could come together to form a grudge; this was of course rare.

Grudges would then be farmed by necromancers in multiple ways, but the most common being 2 exceptionally cruel methods.

The first was to capture and torture a powerful individual to generate negative emotions like hatred, fear and pain. The second was to find a large population of weaker individuals and erase them entirely, the genocide creating enough fear and hatred to make a new death knight. While for most this would go beyond what most were comfortable with, for a necromancer, a class known to dabble in the most taboo of the occult, it was merely a chore they needed to do.

In Liz's case, the grudge was not from being killed, but rather the hate formed as Liz killed the breeder's children.

"Amazing." Liz smiled as she looked up at her new undead.

A feeling of pride overwhelmed her at the sight of her creation, but more so at the creation of a truly powerful undead; an undead she knew could not continue without a name.

"Thank you for your loyalty." Liz spoke, trying to sound grander than her abandoned doll race would typically allow, "For that I grant you the name: Demeter."

Somehow, in a case of strange irony Liz had chosen to name her first death knight for a goddess known for motherhood by pure coincidence. As the name left Liz's sewn on lips a weight descended upon the cave, only for a moment before dispersing, leaving Liz with a strange feeling. From Demeter, a quiver of joy rippled through her aura of death as her loyalty increased in proportion with the power gained.

"I will be eternally grateful, My Queen." Demeter said, keeping her voice stoic, but unable to keep her body still as she trembled in joy, "It is my greatest honour to serve."

She seems even more loyal than the other undead. Liz thought to herself. It's like having 2 Luthor's.

[Del: Piper's up]

Liz's eyes widened at the message that popped up. Her priorities were completely shifted and she desired greatly to get things in ELO over with.

"Okay. We've got this place." Liz said hurriedly as she motioned for Demeter to stand, "Eren, go tell the diggers to start making this place a proper mine with a few secret areas to use in emergencies."

"I may be able to help with that, your majesty." Demeter cut in, "Although unclear, my memories know of some shiny rock deposits. It is my understanding, people like those."

"... That's good. Go guide some of the diggers towards them. Talk to Ralt and he'll give you a group to take charge of." Liz explained, slightly annoyed she was further distracted, but happy to learn of what sounded like metal as well as learning death knights kept more than just basic appearance from their lives, "Gloria, I'm going unconscious, guard my body."

"Understood." Gloria said, Liz noticed Demeter's helmeted head looking towards Gloria, something like anger directed towards her through her death aura; but as quick as she noticed it, it was gone and so Liz left the world of Gladrash to return to New Earth.

She woke up, not in her bedroom as she had become used to, but the building that was owned by Magnus. Springing up from where she was playing the game, Liz rushed over to the room Piper was in; pulling open the door she was delighted to see her sister awake and smiling; Liz didn't even process that others were in the room, their figures completely obscured by her love for Piper.

As the door was opened, Piper turned her head to look and he smiled widened greatly at the sight of her sister.

"Liz!" She called cheerfully, feeling discomfort from the pain, but no less happy, "You're okay!"

"Of course I'm okay." Liz responded, rushing forward and hugging her sister tightly, "You should worry about yourself."

Tears threatened to fall from Liz's eyes as the frustration she felt at herself for allowing her sister to be harmed overwhelmed her, but she couldn't cause any more worry to Piper and controlled herself - but not enough to realise she was hugging too tight.

"Sister! Too tight! It hurts!" Piper laughed, causing Liz to frantically pull back and check to make sure she hadn't done any real harm. Piper watched happily as her sister seemed to be back to normal; although vague and hard to recall she did remember seeing her sister in the warehouse, but the person who appeared hardly seemed like Elizabeth. The woman's face was icy cold with eyes burning with unrestrained hatred - a sight Piper was not used to at all; one she had only seen one other time.

As Piper thought back on those memories, she went silent. Struggling to connect her sister with such violent and hostile personas - the silence was noticed.

"What's wrong Pip?" Liz asked, truly concerned something had happened, "Is everything okay?"

"... Why did those people want to get to you?" She asked, the room went silent as Elizabeth looked shocked and concerned, "Did you do something?"

Piper's eyes looked worried, scared that her sister was once again doing something risky. She was impulsive and often got herself into trouble in the name of putting Piper first; she frequently put herself and others in danger by neglecting to consider the wider consequences of her actions.

"I... I hurt a rich person's ego." Liz choked out spitefully, the mere thought of the ones responsible making her stomach churn in disgust, "They don't like that poor people are doing better than them."

Piper wasn't entirely convinced, she believed her sister, but felt there was something more that she wasn't being told.

"Don't keep things from me." Piper said seriously, her eyes piercing through her sister, "The upper classes wouldn't get involved unless you actively target them. I don't care how much you make, if doing it puts you at risk it's not worth it."

Liz looked away, knowing Piper was right - she simply hoped her sister would drop it, but Liz was not so lucky. She needed ELO, not just because it was a source of income like none Elizabeth had ever seen, but also because she had come to enjoy it; to truly love playing.

"What exactly did you do to upset someone like the Kim family?" Piper asked, Liz's eyes turning straight to the others in the room.

"You told her!?" She yelled, Seb and Jess looking away sheepishly as she did.

"Stop it! I asked them to!" Piper yelled back, she was tired of being kept out of the loop on everything; Liz desperately wanted to protect her sister, but Piper felt she treated her like glass - too protective to allow her to even live.

"That doesn't matter! you don't need to know about this stuff." Liz yelled back, raising her voice at Piper - something she didn't often do, "I can take care of it! I can take care of everything!"

"No you can't!" Piper yelled back, "If you could take care of it, then I wouldn't be here!"

Liz fell back into her chair, trembling as tears finally began to fall.

"I... I didn't mean it like that." Piper tried to console her sister, realising what she had just implied.

"I... Did this." Liz muttered, looking at the floor.

"No! I misspoke." Piper responded, managing to calm herself slightly, "What I meant is that you can be... Impulsive. And that causes problems, like this one."

Liz took it in, partially. Her mind was still spiralling at the thought that she could have put Piper at risk, but some of her sister's input was taken in.

"Haah. You're right." Liz sighed. Although it wasn't her intention, she had antagonised Golden Radiance; she had never actively sought it out, but did especially enjoy the times she would come across one of the guild members and run circles around them in combat. Their arrogance was greater than almost anyone she had ever met, so putting them in their place was cathartic; especially when such an opportunity never really came in real life.

"... But I can't quit, the money is too good and... I'm having fun." Liz said sheepishly, shooting a glare at Seb as he began snickering. Piper was silent for a moment, but she couldn't be the one who took away her sister's first interest - especially considering what she had already given up for her.

"Fine. But I don't want any secrets between us." Piper relented, "I want to know the real reason they came after you?"

"Haah... Okay, to sum things up: I'm Smokey, the one from ELO." Liz began to narrate what had happened to her over the course of her time in ELO, but nothing shocked PIper more than the reveal of her sister's online persona.

Smokey was one of the most talked about topics in the ELO forums, the moment people began to put her into the backs of their mind she would do something that would make her relevant once again - for Liz to reveal that she was that very person put a lot into perspective.

The money and the potions should have given things away; she had never even talked about the most prominent figure in the game she so clearly loved - there were signs and Piper had simply been ignoring them.

As the pair continued to talk, something they had not taken the time to do in quite some time, the others in the room left to leave them alone. Piper was scared, but knew that her sister had embarked on a path that she couldn't really go back on; and really she was quite proud that her sister was getting the recognition she deserved.

"You can join my guild too, if you want." Liz said. Piper was silent for a moment before she smiled widely, excited beyond words that she was being invited to spend time with her sister like when they were younger.

"Of course." Piper laughed, the girls continuing their talk long into the night.

---

As Liz's doll body fell unconscious, her mind returning to her IRL body, Gloria caught her master before she could hit the ground.

She walked over to an area she designated as defensible with Liz in her arms before she laid her down and began stoically protecting her. Eren had turned and began skipping off to complete her task, but Demeter seemed less interested in her task as she stared right at Gloria.

Even Gloria's stoic demeanour could not remain as Demeter let out an audible click of her tongue (or some similar organ) as she turned.

"What's wrong?" Gloria said, she had noticed the way Demeter had reacted to not just Gloria, but also Eren. Demeter remained silent with her back towards Gloria, "What is wrong with you."

"... Someone like yourself should not be given the responsibility of guarding the Queen." Demeter said, some venom carrying through her voice, "I am far more worthy of the task than you."

"And what does that mean?" Gloria said, barely controlling her anger as she spoke.

"It's simple." Demeter said, turning around, "I am born from her majesty's power, a child of her own making, while you... are merely a soul-bound. You're no different from a stray who her majesty was kind enough to take in."

The cruel laughter that came from Demeter caused even Eren's ever present smile to fall as she stopped in her tracks.

"So, you think you're better than me." Gloria said, her voice tense, "Better than us?"

"Ha. Isn't that obvious." Demeter mocked, "I'm a death knight, while you're the member of a race too weak to keep existing and a former saintess: One of the classes that seesaw the extinction of her majesty's profession."

With that sentence, Gloria stepped forward with her sword ready and a number of black, pulsating blades floated above her; but Demeter was not fazed, her crescent blades having found their way to her hands.

"You'd best think harder about what you say there, Demy." Eren laughed, her tone so icy that Garnet felt she would turn to bloody ice, "Lizzy wouldn't like too much conflict between chums. Hehehe."

One crescent blade found itself pointed towards Eren as Demeter's tone became harsher once again.

"That form of address shows clearly that you are an unloyal dog." Demeter said, clearly angry.

"You have your orders Demeter, Master has tasked me with guarding her body." Gloria said, just barely regaining her calm, "Fighting now would be disloyalty; for one who claims to be so loyal you seem to be putting a lot of time into not following orders."

Demeter flattered for a moment, before lowering her weapons.

"This is not the end of this." Demeter said, her dislike for Gloria and Eren clear, before walking away to fulfil the duties given to her by Liz.

Eren and Gloria shared a look of annoyance, but also went to follow orders.

It seems the corpses that made her influenced her a lot... Gloria sighed, settling her trembling nerves at the thought of her failure.